Never Too Late - Discontinued
by Sasaui7
Summary: This is the old Never Too Late. There is a new one with the same title. Go read that one if you wish for one that will continue updating.
1. Prologue

Blood. Screams. Death. Injured. Traitors.

That's what the village was filled with, a nine year old boy thought as he ran through the body covered streets. He bit his lips, finding it hard to look at the faces, afraid he'd see someone he knew in them. Or, worse, to see her face. The boy had sandy blond hair, jade eyes, and fair skin. He was wearing a blood red shirt that hid most of the blood stains, blue shorts, and ninja shoes. He reached into his kunai pouch, pulling out one as he got deeper into the city.

A ninja suddenly appeared in front of him, an evil smirk on his face. "Bow down to Yuma or die," he threatened.

"I'd rather die than join her!" the boy exclaimed, jumping at the ninja. He watched as the man smiled. He must not have known just how powerful the Jikoku clan was. The boy did a quick hand sign, and then the man was suddenly moving in slow motion. It wasn't that the boy was moving faster, but the man was moving slower. The boy ducked under his arm, closing his eyes as he brought the kunai tip up into the man's jaw. He felt blood squirt onto his face, but refused to jump away in disgust. This was war - blood would have to be shed. It was the only way to live. And the only way to find her.

When he felt the man go limp, he jumped away, keeping his eyes close for another moment before running forward again. The boy tried to avoid getting distracted, heading to the one place he knew she always went whenever bad things happened, but it was hard. He always wanted to go help someone in trouble, but it was his assigned job to protect her, not them.

The boy came to a stop as another boy suddenly appeared in front of him, a small smirk on his face. The boy was about thirteen, with blond hair that barely passed his ears, bright blue eyes, and fair skin. He was wearing a black shirt under a yellow sleeveless one, stormy grey pants, and black ninja shoes.

"Toshiro," the boy hissed at the older one, eyes narrowing.

"I finally found you, Krino," Toshiro said, the same annoying smile spread across his face. "Yuma was wondering where you were." Krino flinched as Toshiro suddenly appeared in front of him, hand grasping his arm. "Seeing as you're one of the last members in the Jikoku clan, and known as the strongest at using your kekkai genkai, she'd prefer to keep you alive."

"To use me like she's trying to do with everyone else!" Krino snapped, biting down on Toshiro's fingers. Letting out a howl, Toshiro let go. As soon as he realized what happened, he glared at Krino. But it was too late. Right when Toshiro looked up, Krino was finishing the hand signs. "Jikoku style! Jikoku osoi (time slow) jutsu!" As he said this, time around him started to slow down. Knowing he only had a few seconds to run before the jutsu broke, he made a run for it. He bit his lip as he weaved through the slow battle, and then it suddenly went back to normal speed. If he continued to use his kekkai genkai like this, he'd quickly run out of chakra. He swerved to avoid a kunai that had missed its target, turning onto one of the back roads that led to his destination, knowing it would be more peaceful.

"So, where is my adorable sister hiding, Jikoku?"

Krino skidded to a stop as the familiar figure appeared in front of him, only now surrounded by lightning. Dang it! He absolutely hated the Katachi's form jutsu. It drove him insane. Sure, he didn't mind when she used it, but when it was being used against him, it was annoying. "Pretty bad you have to use your lightning form jutsu on a little kid."

Toshiro glared, pulling out a kunai. "Don't make me hurt you. Yuma wanted you unharmed, but I could just blame it on one of the others."

"If you want to know where she is, I'm not going to tell you. I'm never going to tell you." Krino reached back and pulled out a short sword, putting it in front of him. He got into a defensive stance, his eyes meeting Toshiro's. "Unlike you, I'd never betray her."

Toshiro let out a bark of laughter. "I have no clue why people always feel so freaking compelled to help that brat."

"That's what friends are, you jerk!" Krino ran forward, watching as Toshiro pulled back his hand, flicking his wrist and sending the kunai flying at him. Krino watched as he spun, lightning suddenly engulfing it.

Taking in a deep breath, Krino jumped up and over it, knowing that was what Toshiro was wanting him to do. The next second the blond headed boy was in front of Krino, his fist pulled back. He launched it forward, landing a blow on his cheek-

And cursing when Krino poofed, leaving smoke in his place. "Shadow clone," he muttered. "How annoying can one kid be?"

****

Krino felt his shadow clone die as he manoeuvred through the alleys, getting so close to the place he wanted to be he almost jumped onto the building to get a better view. But he knew better. If he did that, Toshiro may see him.

He continued running for a minute before turning the last corner, stopping and gasping for air, a smile on his face, when he saw the church in front of him.

Krino ran forward, glancing around to make sure nobody was watching him. He ran at full speed toward the church, hoping that she'd be there. He stopped when he entered the place, looking around. "Hello," he whispered. "Are you here?"

No response.

Krino closed his eyes, feeling sadness fill him. She wasn't there. His eyes flew back open when he hear something scrape against the ground. One of the chairs had moved. Was she there? Filled with hope he really wanted not to crash down on him, he ran toward the chair that had moved.

"You're okay!" Krino exclaimed when he saw his friend cowering between two chairs. The girl had pale blond hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. She wore a purple shirt with the word かたち (Katachi) on the back, blue shorts, and black ninja shoes.

The girl nodded, her eyes showing her fear. She was a year younger than him, but she looked even shorter. She'd always been short, though.

Krino smiled. "Come on. We need to-"

"What? Escape?"

"Crap," Krino muttered, turning to see Toshiro smirking at them. "How'd you find me so quickly?"

Toshiro let out a bark of laughter. "Seeing as I'm fast as lightning, you shouldn't be surprised I already caught up with you," he said. "Now, just hand over my sister and nobody gets hurt."

"Drop dead!" Krino shouted, grabbing the girl and putting her on his back despite her protest to just run and leave her. "No. I'm going to protect you."

"But, Krino," she began.

"No buts!" he shouted, running at full speed away. He quickly did some hand signs. "Jikoku style! Jikoku osoi jutsu!" Time slowed, allowing him to be faster than Toshiro. He ran forward, doing even more hand signs as he reached the wall. "Fire style! Fire aura jutsu!" Hands, Krino thought. His hands were surrounded with a red aura before the aura became fire. Knowing his time slow jutsu would break soon, he made a whole in the wall of the church.

"Don't you dare burn this church down, Krino Jikoku!" the girl said, and he knew she was glaring at him.

"We need to get out of here!" Krino retorted, running away from the church and Toshiro. But he was too slow.

"Lightning style! Paralyze jutsu!"

Krino felt lightning run up his legs, and the next moment he slammed against the ground, the girl flying off of him. He heard her yelp as she hit the ground. "Hurry up and run!" Krino ordered.

The girl stared at him with teary eyes as she got up. "But, Krino-"

"RUN!" he barked, glaring at her. "Don't worry about me. Run. You have to get away."

The girl looked at him for a few more minutes before turning and running. Right before she disappeared into the forest, lightning surrounded her like it had Toshiro.

Krino sighed in relief, closing his eyes. He heard the pad of feet as Toshiro got closer to him.

"You know we'll catch her sooner or later," Toshiro said, crouching down beside of him.

"You underestimate you sister, Toshiro. She's the strongest Katachi left, and we both know that's why Yuma wants her."

"Hn." Toshiro placed his hand on Krino's hand, sparking his head.

He closed his eyes, screaming as such strong lightning coursed through his veins he knew he'd faint in moments. But that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered right then and there was that she was safe. That Kina had gotten away.

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Here's a picture of Kina when she's 13-14, in case you want to check it out. Ignore the brunette, she was from the old story.


	2. The New Teammate

The only sound that the young Uchiha heard was sobbing as he stood in the pitch darkness of who knew where. Sasuke looked around, searching for the source. After standing there for a few moments, looking around for the source of the sound, he met onyx eyes looking at him, but there was no body that was apart of those eyes. "Who are you?" he asked.

The eyes started moving back, so, with narrowed eyes, Sasuke followed. Maybe the eyes could help him understand where he was. Sasuke glanced around, expecting light to appear somewhere. He didn't feel safe not being able to see where he was. He didn't feel any chakra around him, so he presumed he was safe; however, he didn't lower his guard. He flinched when the eyes disappeared. Sasuke, knowing the eyes had wanted him to go forward, continued on. He didn't know what the eyes wanted, but the whole time he'd been walking, the person sobbing got closer.

After a few minutes, he spotted light. It was behind a door, and as he neared it, the sobbing got louder. Sasuke slid the door open, eyes widening slightly and betraying the shock he felt despite his usual mask. In front of him were two familiar dead bodies, a young boy with dark hair staring down at them. Tears were falling from his face to the floor.

"He killed everyone," the boy mumbled in a voice all too familiar to Sasuke. Why? It had been his voice when he had been eight or nine years old. The younger version of him looked up. He looked up, pure hate in his eyes. "He killed everyone!" As he screamed, Sasuke painfully watched as the same thing his brother had shown him with his sharingan played before him like a movie. His hands clenched as he watched it. When it vanished, he was standing in the room alone, the bodies gone, with the younger doppelganger of himself. "So why aren't you doing anything about it?"

Sasuke tensed as the younger him threw his head back and screamed, hand-like wings bursting from his back. The were about the same size as him. The wings curled around him, putting the boy in a ball.

"Can you answer me, Sasuke?" The wings flew out, a mirror image of him appearing where the younger doppelganger had been. Instead of what he'd been wearing when he attempted to run away, he was wearing a shirt similar to the blue one he usually wore, only it was sleeveless and zipped up, a white shirt underneath that, a blue arm band on his left elbow, and white shorts. Except one difference - he was in second curse mark form. "Why do you no longer pursue Itachi?" the clone asked.

"I do," Sasuke said. Then he added, more coldly, "Now tell me where I am."

The clone simply smirked. "I thought you were the great, amazing Uchiha. Why must you ask questions?" When Sasuke continued to glare, the clone laughed. "You're so freaking weak, to actually be dragged back to this retched village."

Orochimaru suddenly appeared beside of the Sasuke clone, but he was see-through, like he was just an image. "He could've given you the power you needed to kill our brother," his clone went on. "We may have ended his life by now if only you hadn't hesitated."

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled, hating the fact that he was being chided at by himself. "I make my own decisions!" He pulled out a kunai, running forward. He slashed at his clone, his sharingan activated. But he caught his wrist, squeezing so hard Sasuke feared it may break.

"Weakling." The clone scoffed, yanking up so that Sasuke raised. Sasuke swung his leg, but the clone was suddenly gone, making Sasuke hit nothing but hair. "If you don't kill him, he'll kill you. The weaker ones are always brought down by those who crave power."

"Sasuke!" a familiar voice hissed. Sasuke swirled around, tensing as a giant white snake with black hair spilling from the top of his head flew at him. Its eyes resembled Orochimaru's, making Sasuke flinch. It opened its mouth wide, swallowing him.

****

Sasuke's eyes flew open as he bolted up into a sitting position. He was breathing slightly hard, the wind blowing his hair into his sweat covered face. Sasuke, who had been laying on a hill by a river, had apparently fallen asleep. It was about noon in Konoha, so the sun was right in his eyes. He began to raise his arm to block it, but before he could, a figure dressed in orange and blue stepped in front of it.

"Hey, Sasuke," a familiar, annoying said, coming from the figure in front of him. His flashed white teeth at Sasuke, putting his hands behind his blond hand and resting it on his locked fingers. Sasuke knew who it was. It was the person he'd recently discovered was the host of the Nine tailed fox- Naruto Uzumaki. Though they were somewhat friends, the rivalry between them was too strong for some people to know they were friends.

"What do you want, Dobe?" Sasuke asked. He glared at the blond haired Uzumaki as he gave him a ridiculously childish grin.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei sent me down to get you," Naruto explained. He looked happier than usual, which surprised Sasuke. Usually he was irritatingly happy, but now he was annoyingly and irritatingly happy. "That new girl who's supposed to be on our team for the upcoming chunin exams is coming today, and Kakashi-sensei said you had to come with me to get her or you had to spend the whole day with me." His eyebrows connected in confusion. "I don't know how that's a punishment, though."

Sasuke, however, did. He hated whenever he had to go on missions with the dobe, but to spend a whole day alone with him? With an annoyed sigh, Sasuke got to his feet. His body was slightly tensed, so he stretched. Sasuke didn't know much about the girl who was supposed to be their new team-mate except that she was coming from the Mist Village. Other than that, he knew nothing. Naruto began walking toward the gate, talking about how excited he was. Sasuke, like usual, tuned him out.

Even though Naruto and Sasuke had basically fought to the death about a month ago, Naruto still seemed to be normal, as if it never had happened. He'd hesitated a little too long over Naruto, actually rethinking. Kakashi had appeared, and Sasuke, in his weak state, hadn't been able to get away. Kakashi knocked him out with a simple blow to the back of the neck. Sasuke tuned back into what was going on just in time to hear Naruto say, "Cool, huh?" Sasuke couldn't wait until he left with Jiraiya. Sasuke came to a stop at the gates, staring at the forest. Noon. The new girl should be there soon. When he glanced at Naruto, he saw him gaping up at something on the gate. Perplexed, Sasuke followed his gaze.

That's when he saw on the girl sitting on the top of the gate, looking over the village with slightly awed eyes. She had shoulder length pale blond hair, ocean blue eyes, and fair skin. She was wearing a yellow shirt with sleeves that stopped at her elbows and ended half way down her waist over a sleeveless darkened fishnet, white shorts, and blue ninja shoes. Even Sasuke had to admit she was cute, though he didn't quite care about that fact. All that mattered was her skills.

As if feeling their eyes, the girl looked down at her. She smiled at them, pushing off the edge of the gate and plummeting to the ground. She landed on the ground with a thud, straightening up before looking at us again. The girl walked over to us. "Are you team 7?" she asked.

Naruto nodded, walking up to her with a smile. "Yeah, we're team 7!" Naruto said happily. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage! Believe it!"

The girl smiled back just as happily. "And my name is Kina Katachi, your new team-mate."

Sasuke looked at the girl. So she was their new team-mate. Kina Katachi, Sasuke repeated in his mind. He looked her up and down again, fixing his eyes on hers. She was smiling, nodding as Naruto talked animatedly to her about how happy he was to meet her. Her eyes were the most interesting part to him. They reminded him slightly of his own. They were filled with pain he could just barely identify it was so well hidden. She also showed a hint of past anger, even though he doubted she knew it was still there. Despite those two feelings, she showed nothing but happiness on the surface of the blue pools known as her eyes. She turned to him, looking her up and down just like he had been moments ago.

****

Kina looked at the boy in front of her. It was a boy with raven colored lopsided hair, onyx eyes, and pale skin. He wore a blue, sleeveless zip-up what she guessed what called a vest, its neck raising and going around his neck, a white T-shirt under that, a blue armband, white shorts, and black ninja sandals. She focused on his eyes. They reminded her slightly of black holes, absorbing everything but lacking any signs of light. There was pain and hatred behind the emotionless façade he put on. Kina extended her hand to the raven haired boy.

He was the exact opposite of the boy in orange with blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and cheeks with three whisker like marks on each cheek. Naruto, she recalled. He had pain in his eyes like she and the boy did. Only, like her, he seemed to have an aura around him full of happiness. Just being around him she felt happy.

"My name's Kina Katachi. What's your name?" Kina asked.

The boy just looked at her for a few minutes, ignoring her hand as he met her eyes, saying, "Sasuke Uchiha." He turned away coldly, missing her tense for a moment. "Come on. I'll take you to the Hokage."

Kina raised an eyebrow, not sure if she liked being bossed around by this boy she just met. She smiled. "Coming, Uchiha," she said. She didn't know why, but she felt as if he would like her not saying his actual name because then it was like they were already friends.

"So, what do you think of Konoha?" Naruto asked after walking through about half of the village. "Hey, there's my favorite place." Naruto pointed passed her to some sort of shop. It took her a moment to realize it was a Ramen place. "I love ramen. How about you?" Naruto asked. By the time he asked, they were right beside of Sasuke. "Or how about this? I'll ask you the same questions our sensei asked us when we first met him. What do you like, dislike, your hobbies, and dream or dreams?"

Kina thought for a moment. "I like training, relaxing, people who are very nice-"

"So not Sasuke," Naruto said, receiving a glare from the Uchiha.

Kina looked at Sasuke for a moment. "I wouldn't know since I just met you and Uchiha," she remarked. "Anyway, I also like walking, reading, being up high, hanging out with my friends-" Kina smiled- "and ramen. I don't like people who are jerks, sore winners, people who look down on others, spiders, the food fish, and people who whine or complain all the time. They should be happy about what they have." As she spoke, she pursed her lips. "My hobbies, I guess, are training, reading, and hanging out with my friends. As for my dream-" Kina looked away.

****

Sasuke looked at Kina, trying to figure out what was wrong. As soon as she said something about her dream, she could have sworn, though Naruto missed it, that she'd started to cry. Her pale blond hair was in front of her face now, like she was trying to make sure nobody saw.

After a moment, she took a deep breath and looked up, a smile on her face. "My dream is something I'm not going to tell you. Sorry. Too personal." Sasuke gazed at her eyes, the pain that had been hidden away earlier so strong that he almost flinched. Key word: almost.

"Well, we're here," Sasuke said, stopping in front of the Hokage's building. "The Hokage is in there." Sasuke started walking forward, stopping when he saw the lopsided silver hair that was so familiar he didn't even have to see the face behind the book cover to know who was leaning against the wall by the door. "Kakashi," he said in acknowledgement.

Kina was up to the copy ninja before he even lowered the book all the way. She looked him up and down before extending her hand. "Hello. I'm Kina Katachi, and you must be Kakashi Hatake, my new sensei."

Kakashi smiled at her. "Hello, Kina. And you are correct. I am team 7's sensei." He took her hand and shook it as he put his book away. Kakashi looked at Sasuke, a slight smile in his eyes. "So, you decided you didn't want to spend the day with Naruto?"

Sasuke glared at Kakashi. "Jerk," he muttered, walking passed Kina and Kakashi and into the Hokage's building. He walked, hearing all of them walking behind them. She told Kakashi the same things she had told him and Naruto. He could easily see the pain in her eyes the first time she told them about her dream, but this time she did good at hiding it.

He thought about how Kina looked. She looked familiar, but he couldn't think of where he'd seen her. After a moment, he thought about the dream he'd had when he fell asleep by the river. And like that he remembered where he'd seen Kina before. The end of the dream that he had no clue how he'd forgotten. It was like he hadn't remembered until he actually tried to remember where he saw Kina before

****

Sasuke was surrounded in darkness while in the snake's stomach. "Come to me, Sasuke," Orochimaru's voice hissed. "I'll give you the power you crave. Just wake up and come to me. You'll be able to kill Itachi Uchiha." A pause. "How is it possible? You shouldn't be here!"

A light suddenly formed above Sasuke, so he looked up. Above him was a girl with such light blond hair it was almost white, blue eyes that seemed to invite him into something, like a party of happiness or some crap along that line, and pale skin. She wore a white gown and nothing else, white wings sprouting from her back. "You cannot listen to the snake. Everything he tells you are lies, Uchiha," the girl said in a familiar voice. "And please, don't let her go through the pain she will in the future. Stop it."

****

Sasuke was still thinking of his dream when they came to the door to the Hokage's office. Kakashi knocked. After the Hokage called, "Come in," Sasuke walked in, Kina suddenly beside of him.

"Is the Hokage nice, Uchiha?" she whispered. "I've heard she's terrifying."

Sasuke simply smirked, leaning against the wall. Kina pursed her lips, still looking at him. She smiled at him after a moment. "You should smile more rather than you smirk. I think it would be better if you smiled."

Sasuke's eyes widened, taken by surprised. What made her say that?

"So, you're Kina Katachi," Tsunade said, making Kina turn her attention to the female Hokage. She smiled kindly at her. "I'm Tsunade, the Hokage of Konoha." Tsunade, like all of them had, looked Kina up and down. "I heard from the Mizukage that you are a great friend to have, and other things she told me you'd prefer I didn't say. She also said she hopes you finally find it."

Kina smiled gratefully. It seemed like she understood what she meant, unlike any of the other members of the team.

"We were going to put you on Kakashi's team because Naruto and Sasuke needed a third member for their team since their original third member is going to be here, training with me." Kina nodded. "Sakura should be here any minute, so you can meet here then. We only have one problem," Tsunade began. There was a knock, which made Tsunade pause. "Come in."

The next moment the pink haired girl known as Sakura came in. Sasuke had to admit she'd matured quite a bit and no longer obsessed over him when he told her no matter what she did, he couldn't return her feelings. Kina practically materialized by Sakura, who raised an eyebrow.

"Hello. I'm Kina Katachi! I'm new to this village," she introduced. "It's nice to meet you."

Sakura laughed, smiling widely at the girl who was reminding Sasuke more and more of Naruto with the way she seemed to not only draw people to her, but had that happy aura around her. "Hello, Kina. I'm Sakura," she said.

Kina said a few more things before Kakashi spoke. "So, what was the problem you were about to explain?"

"Oh yes," Tsunade said. "Well, we don't know Kina's stats because her files went missing the day before she left the village. Strange, huh?" She shrugged, not pushing the subject. "So, to test her skills, we're going to have Sasuke and Naruto battle Kina tomorrow at 7 in the morning sharp."

Kina looked between Naruto and Sasuke, both of which were looking at her. Naruto smiled. "This ought to be fun, huh?" he said.

Kina smiled as well, nodding enthusiastically. "I guess so," Kina agreed.

"Everyone is dismissed beside Kina and Sasuke," Tsunade said. Everyone said farewell to Kina, Sakura talking to her for another moment before leaving as well. Sasuke, confused, walked away from the wall so he was standing beside of Kina.

"Why does Uchiha have to stay as well?" Kina questioned.

Sasuke thought about that for a moment. Why'd she call him Uchiha instead of Sasuke?

Tsunade smiled. "Because Sasuke has been so kind to offer to show you around town before taking you to your apartment," she replied.

Sasuke glared, but didn't argue. Instead he said, "Hn," and looked passed the Hokage and out the window. She handed Kina a piece of paper that told her where her apartment was, telling her how to get there. When she was finished, she gave Kina some money that she called allowance. She told her she needed to go shopping for some gear for tomorrow.

"And Sasuke will carry it all for you, seeing as he's the gentleman," Tsunade said, still refusing to ask him before volunteering him.

Once again, he simply glared at her. "Just come on," Sasuke muttered, grabbing Kina's arm before she continued to talk to Tsunade, like he knew she would try and do. He didn't let go of her arm until after they walked out of the building. She, however, forced him to stop at times to introduce herself to random people. With every person she introduced herself to, the more irritated he got.

****

"Now where?" Sasuke asked, hating how he was unable to stop his anger from filling his voice. She just seemed too social. The thing that surprised him, though, was that the more people that seemed to like her, the more pain she seemed to be unable to hide. It was almost night, and Sasuke was carrying about ten bags, hurting his wrists. They were all full of ninja things and books

Kina pursed her lips, looking around. After a moment, she turned to looked at Sasuke. "How about we go eat at that ramen place, Uchiha?" Kina offered.

Sasuke sighed, shrugging. He didn't care. He just wanted to get her away from people. Every time she met someone she didn't know, she ran up and introduced herself. He had to drag her away from at least a dozen or so people. Sometimes she'd even go back and talk to them again. One of the people she talked most to was Sakura, who was running errands for Tsunade. He was starting to hate the Hokage for making him do this. If it had been anyone else, fine, but Kina was just to happy and always seemed to want people to know her. Even as he thought he, the image of her pained eyes flashed in his mind.

Kina looked at him for a moment. "Aren't you hungry?" Kina asked.

Sasuke shrugged again, averting his eyes when his stomach betrayed him and growled.

Kina smiled. "I should have guessed you'd be hungry." Kina grabbed his forearm, much like he had been doing that day to drag her away from people. "Let's go get some ramen," Kina said, her being the one to drag him to the ramen stand Naruto had told her about earlier.

Sasuke groaned as she stopped to introduce herself to a small child she was handing a ball that had accidentally been kicked at them. It was like one second she was there, the next she wasn't. Almost like she had the Fourth Hokage's teleporting move. "Weren't you the one who wanted to go and eat?" Sasuke growled.

The boy looked from Sasuke to Kina. "Is he your boyfriend?" the child asked.

Kina smiled at the child, beginning to say no when the boy looked back at Sasuke. His eyes were filled with so much anger that the boy whimpered slightly, turning and running back to his friends. Kina turned on Sasuke, her eyebrow raised. "Okay, the question was a little embarrassing, but seriously?"

Sasuke ignored her and started walking to Ichiraku Ramen instead. He stepped under the paper sign, sitting down on the first seat he saw. He nodded to Teuchi, counting down in his head, Three, two, one. Then Kina was there, hand extended.

"Hello! I'm Kina Katachi," she said, moving to Ayame next, greeting her as well. "So, can I get chicken ramen?" Kina asked. When Ayame nodded, she turned to Sasuke.

"Just give me whatever," he muttered, looking passed her and at the wall. Ayame sighed, rolling her eyes before walking back to prepare the food.

"You really don't care what you get, Uchiha?" Kina asked.

Finally deciding it annoyed him too much that he didn't know why she did it, he asked, "Why do you keep on calling me Uchiha, Katachi?"

Kina raised an eyebrow. "Why do you call me Katachi?" she said, but then laughed. "I called you Uchiha because I call all people who aren't my friend by their last names. And, since I can tell you aren't really my friend despite the fact I try and be yours, I call you Uchiha," she explained.

Sasuke looked her up and down, finally meeting her pained eyes. Even though she seemed to not like having so many friends, she was still trying to be his. Would there be even more pain in her eyes if he did become her friend?

Sasuke just smirked, looking away. "Then I'll just call you Katachi," he said, Ayame placing their orders in front of them. Sasuke began eating, Kina bowing and saying thank you before she began eating as well. She suddenly yelped, making everyone look at her. She had her tongue stuck out, fanning it. "What's wrong, Katachi?"

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" she exclaimed.

Teuchi laughed. "She's as energetic as Naruto," he pointed out. "Maybe we'll get another good customer if she's even more like Naruto."

Kina smiled. "If you mean I love ramen and will be here a lot, yeah!" She turned to Sasuke. "How about me and you eat here again tomorrow?" Kina asked.

Taken by surprise, he flinched. His mask broke momentarily, making Kina laugh.

"YES!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down on the chair. "I finally broke your freaking mask! I broke your mask!" Kina smiled at the glaring Uchiha.

"Just shut up and eat," he muttered, turning back to his food. If he could kill one person in the world other than Itachi, he was starting to think she'd be that person. No, it would be Tsunade for making him go through this.

"Sorry," Kina said, once again taking him by surprise. Why was she saying sorry? She didn't do anything. But annoy him. Did she know that what she was doing? "I didn't mean to make you mad."

Sasuke looked at her, slightly taken aback by the sudden apology. How could one girl surprise him so much? "Hn." Sasuke attempted to look away, but kept his eyes on hers as she looked him up and down for the second or third time today. Just trying to get her to stop, he asked, "So, are your parents coming later or something?"

Kina looked up, the pain returning, so strong this time Sasuke tensed. She wasn't going to cry, was she? "I wish they could, but seeing as someone who used to be close to me killed them, I doubt they'll ever come."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Someone close to her killed her parents. Just like his brother killed his parents. Maybe they were alike. He finally realized what that petite anger was. She probably wouldn't admit it, but she wanted to defeat whoever killed her parents. Sasuke pursed his lips. No. Kina was too nice. He couldn't even imagine her hands be covered in blood.

"Let's go home," Kina whispered, getting to his feet.

Sasuke got up slowly, keeping his eyes on her back as she led them to where Tsunade had said her apartment was. Good thing she knew because he hadn't heard or saw whatever Tsunade said when she handed Kina the slip with the apartment name. He relived the night of the massacre, wondering if she felt anything like he did when it happened to him. When had her parents died? Recently? When she was younger? He imagined a younger Kina curled into a ball and crying. Seeing how she was always so happy, it actually felt strange to imagine her sad. Surprisingly, she'd grown silent, not even introducing herself to someone new, and he knew that someone they didn't know had to be there. There was more, he thought. She knew more deaths than she was willing to admit. Just your parents dying left some scars, but it seemed like she had almost as many scars on her heart as he did.

"Here we are," Kina said. They'd walked into a building full of apartments, Kina stopping in front of a door. She turned to Sasuke, giving him what he knew was a forced smile. "Thanks for everything. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, she stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. And that's when he realized where they were.

Note to self: Find way to either kill or annoy Tsunade to death, he thought as he looked at the plaque on the door. It said 219. Why was he so mad? This was the building he was staying in, and his apartment just happened to be 220. So that was why the Hokage had had him take her. He groaned. Great. Just so freaking great.


	3. The Katachi Katana

"So?" Kakashi looked at Sasuke, who was in a bed, his arm in a sling. The boy's onyx eyes wondered to the bed the blond Uzumaki had once been occupying, but he'd gotten out before Sasuke. "You going to freak?" Sasuke thought his sensei looked amused by the thought.

After a moment, Sasuke answered. "No. It makes a few things make sense now," he replied, curling the fingers of his good hand into a clenched fist. "That would explain the red chakra and the strange, murderous aura coming from him."

Kakashi examined Sasuke. "You're taking this rather well. I'd expect you to be giving me the silent treatment for a while." Kakashi had brought Sasuke back to Konoha about five days ago, and the first few he had been mad. When Sasuke was silent, he continued talking. "You know you won't be able to escape. You'll won't be alone again, and if you ever are, you'll have anbu watching you. I suspect Tsunade will have them on you like white to rice for a good while."

Sasuke glared at the wall. The stupid Hokage was preventing him from going to Orochimaru. Without him, how was he going to kill Itachi? All these losers were doing was holding him back. The only person who could help him was someone who was almost as power-hungry as him.

"Why do you want to kill Itachi so badly?"

Sasuke let out a humorless laughed before glaring at Kakashi. "Seriously?" he growled. "He freaking killed my clan!" Sasuke shook his head. "Any other freaking stupid questions, Sensei." He growled the last word, meeting the copy ninja's eyes. "Now you're going to ask me why I was going to Orochimaru, huh?"

Kakashi looked away from Sasuke and out the window. "You know, I knew an Uchiha once," Kakashi said abruptly.

"Why would I give a crap?"

Kakashi didn't answer his question. Instead, he said, "Compared to him, you're a disgrace to all of the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke flinched.

Kakashi slowly looked back at his student. "You know what? He gave me his left eye right before he died. You know what he said to me?" No reply. "'While those who break the rules are scum, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum,'" he quoted. "His words were true. And yet you try to kill your own team-mate?"

Sasuke simply said, "Hn," not understanding why his sensei was telling him all of this. It wasn't like it was going to change his choice.

"At first I just called him a cry-baby and a weakling, but if it hadn't been for him, I would've died, and wouldn't have been the man I am today. He got the sharingan about half an hour before he died." Kakashi looked away, and Sasuke could have sworn he saw pain flash through his eyes. "He got those eyes because his will to protect me and to save our team-mate, Rin, was so strong. And now tell me, what was the point to that little tale?" Kakashi turned to meet Sasuke's eyes.

Sasuke shook his head. He didn't say anything else.

"Sasuke, what made Naruto so strong during your battle?"

He looked away, finding himself gazing at the wall again. "He used the nine-tailed fox's chakra," Sasuke replied.

"Wrong."

Sasuke's neck turned so quickly it hurt, the swore spot on the back of his neck from the blow Kakashi dealt to him screaming in pain. "How could I be wrong? Without that fox's chakra, he would've died in the middle of the battle."

Kakashi examined Sasuke before answering. "What made him strong was he want to protect you from Orochimaru." Kakashi smiled slightly. "The will to protect the ones one loves can be a very powerful things." When he saw the way Sasuke was still looking curiously at him, he sighed. "Why'd you go to Orochimaru, Sasuke?" Then he corrected, "Or should I say, attempted to go to Orochimaru?"

"For power. He could lead me to my true potential while none of you could." Sasuke, almost sensing what Kakashi was going to say next, went on. "I don't care if that meant he'd take my life. As long as I was able to kill Itachi."

Kakashi sighed again, shaking his head. "Sasuke, Orochimaru could never show you your true potential," he disagreed. "Naruto would reach his full power before you." When Sasuke raised an eyebrow, Kakashi chuckled. "You think you know so much, Sasuke, but you truly know very little. No matter what you say, hatred is not what makes you strong. It's the exact opposite. It blinds and weakens you."

Sasuke shook his head, thinking of how that had to be the exact opposite of the truth.

"What makes one strong, like it does for Naruto, is pure emotions like love."

"Love is total bull," Sasuke murmured, but he had to face the facts that were being thrown at his face. It had been Naruto and Sasuke's bond that had made the weakling he knew as Naruto become so unbelievably strong that he almost killed him. If he hadn't been wearing his headband, he would've died. And that was before he even went training with Jiraiya like he was planning to do after the Chunin exams. All of that because of the brotherly bond they shared.

"And why kill Itachi to get revenge?" Sasuke could tell by his voice that Kakashi didn't like what he was talking about, but was going to do anything to keep him in Konoha. "Why make him die quickly instead of bringing him back where he'll either be tortured or executed? More likely tortured for information on the Akatsuki. And I don't mean for a small amount of time. They'll torture him until he dies."

The scene dissolved away, becoming little spores. They swirled around, forming a little vortex before taking shape. He was standing in pitch blackness, the curse marked form of him standing in front of him after the spores solidified changing color and shape to form him.

"Why'd you accept Kakashi's lies?" his doppelganger asked. "The anbu have stopped watching you. It would be so much easier to just leave now than it was then."

"Because even I have to admit he's right," was Sasuke simple reply as he pulled out a kunai, running at the clone as he did. Sasuke knew he'd probably lose again, but he still attempted to hurt the clone. He brought the kunai down in on hand, flinging it to the other when the doppelganger caught that wrist. Before Cursed-Marked Sasuke could react, the real Sasuke brought the kunai up and slashed at the clone's chest. Blood instantly stained his and the clone's clothes. Sasuke's eyes widened as a huge white snake shot out of the clone's chest, aiming for Sasuke's face. Sasuke tensed, ready for impact, but before the snake could get near him, a white blade came down and slashed its head off.

"How many times do I have to save your butt?"

Sasuke turned, flinching when he saw the winged Kina in front of him, a smile on her face. She lifted her hand, bringing her middle finger down to her thumb and pushing against it.

"Time to wake up, Uchiha," winged Kina said before flicking Sasuke in the forehead.

****

Sasuke's eyes opened, his heart slamming against his chest. He had no idea why the dream he just had and the one he had yesterday always left his feeling so strange. He slowly sat up, eyes narrowing when he smelled something. Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized he was smelling eggs. Sasuke groaned, getting to his feet. He walked to the kitchen, eyes narrowing when he saw what was going on.

"What are you doing in my house, Katachi?" Sasuke demanded, watching as Kina turned to face him, her back now to the eggs she was making.

Ignoring the question, she smiled and asked, "Do you mind scrambled eggs, because I suck at cracking the dang things."

"How'd you get in here?"

"Do you always answer a question with a question?"

"Do you?"

"Can we stop this, Uchiha?"

"Stop what?"

"Stop the dang questions, that's what. Or are you enjoying it?"

"Don't point fingers at me. You're the one who just asked a question." Sasuke smirked when Kina frowned, thinking she'd yell at him, but then she smiled.

"It looks like you do have a humorous side to you after all," she said, making Sasuke narrow his eyes at her. He muttered something about scrambled eggs being fine as he walked to the table.

"Weren't we just going to eat ramen?" Sasuke muttered, still refusing to look at Kina. "And, once again, what are you even doing in my apartment?"

Kina smiled. "I figured I'd wait until after the battle to eat ramen, and I got on with the card," she began, pulling out a master key. Her eyes narrowed when Sasuke glared at her. "What? Didn't Tsunade tell you she gave me a key? She even gave me a note that said, Don't let Sasuke sleep in."

Sasuke groaned. He seriously needed to kill that woman. Sasuke just sat there, watching Kina as she hummed and scrambled the eggs. He had to fight her today. What chakra element did she have? Was she best in taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu? Would she have one of the elements good against his own? Did she have a kekkai genkai none of them knew about? Sasuke sighed, annoyed by not knowing her fighting style. It would make this a lot easier.

"What are you staring at me for?" Kina asked as she walked over, sliding some eggs in front of him while she took the seat opposite of where he was. "Something wrong?"

Sasuke didn't reply, planning on making her guess. He stared at the eggs for a moment before he took a bite. Deciding they were okay, he continued, glaring when Kina smiled at him. "You smile too much," he remarked.

"Well, you don't smile enough, so I'm smiling for the both of us." Kina laughed at the look of pure hatred he sent her. Kina looked around. "So, where are your parents?"

Sasuke continued looking at his eggs. Out of all the questions she could have asked, it just had to be that one. "They were killed," he said simply, shrugging as if it didn't matter. He didn't want her to start bugging him and asking him stupid questions. Then he remembered how hers were dead as well.

Kina's eyes filled with sympathy, but surprisingly, she didn't make any comment. She simply looked away, thoughtful. "Is anyone else in this village orphaned?"

"Naruto's the only one I know of," he replied, still not meeting her eyes. "But he's lived without his parents since birth. He'd never know the pain of losing the people you loved."

"No, he won't," Kina agreed. "But it doesn't mean that it's not as hard for him, though." At this, Sasuke looked up. "To be alone for so long, to not have anybody is terrible." As she spoke, the pain Sasuke was now familiar with returned. She looked over to meet his eyes. "To never have someone there to tell you that they love you is just as terrible as never seeing them again. To never know who you are, to have that nagging feeling in the back of your head that you'll never know who you truly are, it's horrible."

"You speak as if you know about it," Sasuke snapped, not willing to think about it. There was no way she could be right. Not after Sasuke yelled at Naruto about never knowing the true pain of losing your family.

"I have," she admitted, meeting his eyes. "I've not only lived through it from someone else, but somehow, I feel as if I myself have." Kina pursed her lips, speaking before Sasuke could get his question in. "Uchiha, I don't know how, but one time I actually felt what one of my friends had felt, going through their life for a short moment. I felt his pain. His parents abandoned him at birth, but nobody knows who his parents are."

They sat their, the breakfast Kina had made forgotten. Sasuke's eyes were the first to move, looking over at the clock instead. "Leave, now," Sasuke said, getting to his feet.

"Why?" Kina asked, her eyes slightly narrowed. "It's still forty-five minutes until we have to leave for the training field."

"Exactly. Unlike you, I just woke up and need to get ready." He walked over to the door, opening it and gesturing for her to leave. With a sigh, she did.

****

Sasuke sighed as he crossed his arms, leaning against the wall in front of Kina's door. He'd finished getting ready and had come over to get her. He had knocked, her coming out just to tell him to wait a moment. Now he was waiting, thinking how they had ten minutes at most to get to the field now.

"Finally found it," Kina said, opening the door. She held something that had white cloth wrapped around it, making the object unknown to Sasuke. Kina smiled, extending her arms toward him. "Take it."

Sasuke looked at her for a moment before doing so. He felt something leather beneath the cloth. He glanced at Kina one more time before removing the material, eyes widening as he looked at the black leather sheath. He instantly looked back at Kina. "Why are you giving me a sword?" he demanded.

Kina smiled. "I thought it would help you in the chunin exams, and since I can't use it, I decided to give to you," she replied.

"What about Naruto?"

Kina reached into her pack and pulled out a small pouch. "Inside her are Soldier Pills. I know he's more of a person who fights without thinking but isn't the strongest of people, though he's quite strong. This way he'll have more stamina and will be better at battles instead of getting killed. Anyway, I doubt he'd be able to use a sword. He just doesn't seem like the type." She smiled. "Besides that, there was this one Sasuke guy in the Sarutobi Sasuke book use a sword?"

Sasuke sighed. "Not sure. Never heard of it. But if he does, that's just lame that you're giving me this because of a book character." Sasuke finally looked back down at the sword. The hilt was sticking out. It had red wrapping crisscrossing as it went to the top, which is where it got interesting. The hilt turned to glass surrounded by a guard. He could barely see the glass ball in the glass right where the guard was. After that the it ended. Sasuke pulled the sword out, the blade as white as snow. It was pretty long, so he guessed it was a katana. At the tip, the sword curved a bit before coming to an end.

"That swords belongs to the Katachi clan," Kina murmured, her voice so low Sasuke wasn't sure if he was meant to hear this. "But seeing as I'm one of the only few left and I don't use swords, I'm giving it to you." She looked up, her eyes saying something else, something Sasuke couldn't figure out. But the pain was there again. She smiled, looking away from his eyes. "If you focus your elemental chakra to the katana, the sword seems to gain a chakra of its own, using it until you let go. Luckily it doesn't steal the users chakra, though."

Sasuke stared at the sword for a few moments before strapping the sword around his waist, the long sword tilting slightly from weight. He silently hoped that the sword sheath would be a pain and get in his way. "Well," Sasuke finally said, turning away. "How about we get to the field?"

Kina smiled, nodding. "Yeah. I doubt Tsunade will like it if we're late," she agreed.

Sasuke gave her a "Hn," before he began walking, ignoring her completely as she hummed beside him, introducing herself to anyone new. At least her sadness from yesterday was gone. But that meant the happiness was back. Sasuke sighed, unable to decide when he liked Kina better. When she was quiet, sad, and had a pained look in her eyes, or when she was happy and loud? He was starting to hate both. Like yesterday, Sasuke had to start dragging her again, a vein clearing throbbing in his forehead. "Can you keep your freaking mouth shut for five minutes?" he finally snapped when they were half way there.

Kina smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Uchiha."

Sasuke just glared at her, waiting until they were in the forest to finally let go of her arm. "Just shut up and I'll forgive you," he muttered, sprinting forward. He didn't even bother to look back if Kina could keep up. He could, however, hear her light footsteps as she ran after him. Sasuke glanced down at the sword around his waist, still wondering why she'd give to him. He still didn't get why she wouldn't give it to Naruto, who was actually her friend.

They arrived in the small clearing in a matter of minutes. It was the same one where they'd first fought Kakashi. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Shizune stood by the familiar logs, all of them chatting about something.

"I can't believe I was the one on time today," Kakashi joked when he saw Sasuke and Kina walking up to them, a smile forming under his mask.

"Hn." Sasuke walked passed him, leaning back against one of the logs. He watched as Kina ran over to Naruto, handing him the Soldier Pills and explaining how they revitalize one's strength and energy during a battle. He rested one hand on the katana's hilt, wondering briefly if it would be hard to use.

"Alright," Tsunade said, finally turning to look at team 7. "Let's get this started. Kina, you'll be fighting both Naruto and Sasuke, so don't hold back, okay?"

"Okay," Kina said, nodding. She didn't even wait to hear Tsunade say another word before she ran out into the field, turning toward Naruto and Sasuke when she was on the other side of it, the water behind her. "Bring it on!" she called.

Naruto laughed, a huge grin spreading across his face as he raced forward. "Well, okay then. Begin!" Tsunade said, smiling slightly. With a sigh, Sasuke pushed off the log and ran forward. He paused though, watching as the dobe ran up to Kina. Now was the perfect time to see how skilful she was.

Naruto punched as Kina, which she dodged by jumping over him. She kicked him the back while she was still facing away from him, pushing him toward the water. Naruto surprisingly caught himself before he could fall into the blue pool. He swirled around, Kina still turning. Her eyes widened as Naruto sent a barrage of attacks at her, all of which she just barely dodged. She would attempt to get a hit in, but never could. Finally Naruto landed a blow, his knuckles colliding with her stomach. Kina winced, her breathing slightly hard.

She's not the best in taijutsu, Sasuke observed. He watched as Kina's eyes widened, figuring something out. Kina grasped Naruto by the wrist with one hand before he could withdraw his arm, bringing her other hand back. It tightened into a fist, a smile on her face as she sent it flying forward. Her fist collided with Naruto's face, making him stagger back. Kina jumped away before he could balance himself and attack again. However, she can think really fast to make up for the lack of taijutsu skill.

Naruto glared, making his fingers an form an X. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto said, three more of him appearing with a puff of smoke. Naruto smiled as Kina's eyes widened slightly. "Here I come!" All four Narutos ran forward. They surrounded her quickly all of them having an excited gleam in their eyes. Two of them charged her, fist clenched as they prepared to strike. Kina smiled. She caught the fist of the Naruto clone in front of her, using it to lift herself off the ground. Before the dobe could figure out what was happening, Kina kicked him in the face. Sasuke knew it must have been chakra filled because the clone went flying back. Kina landed in a crouch, pulling the Naruto clone over her head and throwing him at another one of the clones. There were a couple puffs of smoke as they disappeared. Kina turned to face the real Naruto. Naruto grinned at her.

"Good job, Kina."

"You too, Naruto," she said. Naruto pulled out a kunai, so Kina did as well. "Bring it on." They ran at each other, and Sasuke instantly noticed her taijutsu got worse.

She does better fighting more than one person, Sasuke realized. When she fought two or more people, she found ways to use them against each other, but she couldn't do the same against one person. He watched as Kina's kunai clashed with Naruto, and then she kicked at him with her left leg. He caught it easily, but was unable to stop the foot that came up to connect with his chin. Naruto let out a cry as he rose into the air-

And then turned into a puff of smoke. Kina muttered something under her breath as she looked around. The ground under her suddenly rumbled, and then a fist came flying from the ground under her. Kina's eyes widened, a cry piercing her lips as Naruto's knuckles collided with his chin. As Kina was still in the air, along with Naruto, she quickly did some handsigns. She ended on the snake hand seal. "Earth style! Earth pillar jutsu!" Before either of them touched the ground, a pillar of earth, the end completely flat, shot out, colliding with Naruto's stomach. By the time Kina landed on the ground, Naruto hit the surface of the river, sinking in.

She's apparently good at hand seals and does earth style ninjutsu. Sasuke smiled, pulling out his katana as he walked toward the spot directly in front of Kina, only about fifteen yards away. He lifted the katana when Kina looked at him. Kina smiled, slowly taking out another kunai.

"My turn," Sasuke said.


	4. Kina vs Sasuke and Naruto

Kina ran forward, eyes on the sword in Sasuke's hand. My turn. She smiled. Sasuke was as cocky as usual, but she'd found him saying that as sort of cool. She jumped up, slashing at him with her kunai. Instead of blocking with his sword, Sasuke ducked. Kina tried to kick him, but he grabbed her foot, swinging her to the right and started bringing her left again, throwing her this time. She hit the ground hard, struggling to roll onto her feet. When she managed to, Kina got back to her feet, eyes narrowed.

Sasuke smiled. "Is that the best you got?" he asked. Sasuke smirked at her, as if he was the best in the world.

"Not by a long shot!" Kina dashed forward, bringing her kunai up so fast the only thing Sasuke could do to block was use his sword. Kina let go of her kunai, feinting a blow to the left while bringing her fist up in an uppercut. Sasuke blocked that fist with the flat of his blade. She pulled back, hitting again and again, each time being blocked or dodged. She crouched down quickly, sweeping the ground with her leg. It connected with the side of Sasuke's ankle, sending him to the ground. Kina's eyes widened when he caught himself with his free hand, using it to stay balanced as he kicked at her. His shoe smashed into Kina's face, but she refused to go back any before she got a hit in. So she brought her legs up as she went back slightly, slamming them into Sasuke's gut. Sasuke winced, rolling onto the ground before jumping to his feet while Kina landed on her butt. She quickly scrambled to her feet. Kina smiled. "Good job, Uchiha," she complemented.

"If this is all you've got, Katachi, there's no way you'll be going to the chunin exams," Sasuke said, rushing at her. Kina wanted to dodge. Ever part of her body said to dodge, but she stayed where she was.

Just a little closer, she thought, dropping the kunai to the ground. When he was too close to be able to escape, Kina's hands blurred as she did some handsigns. "Earth style! Earth pillar field jutsu!" The same pillar like objects that had hit Naruto shot up from the ground, Sasuke looking around as they surrounded him in a type of box. Kina could just barely see him through the small space between the pillars. Kina smirked, bending her knees before jumping up. She didn't make it to the top, but she managed to grab the edge of one of the pillars and haul herself up onto it. She gazed down at Sasuke, watching as his eyes narrowed into a glare. Kina quickly started doing more handsigns. "Earth style! Earth clone jutsu!" Kina said. When she finished, a figure formed from one of the pillars, stepping out.

Sasuke smiled, pulling his sword back. He raced forward, jumping up and bringing it down. Kina's rock clone used its arm to block, throwing its fist at him. Sasuke blocked with the sole of his foot. He jumped away, landing in a crouch not too far from the clone. Sasuke did some quick handsigns, ending with the tiger. "Fire style! Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke took in a deep breath before letting loose a breath that was basically fire. The small area Sasuke was trapped in was engulfed in flames.

Kina flinched back as the end of the flame licked at her, barely hitting her arm. It was, however, enough to make an angry red mark. Kina glared, looking down. Kina's eyes widened as a figure shot through the flames and at her.

Sasuke.

She had to admit, him flying through the flames like that, a cold look on his face, the sword prepared to swing, the raven colored hair atop his head flying back, he truly did look like a warrior you'd write about in a book. Kina pursed her lips, jumping away from the Sasuke, watching as he landed on the spot she'd been at. The moment he saw her, Sasuke launched himself at her. Kina pulled out a kunai, prepared to fight.

"AHHH!" someone screamed.

Kina turned her head to see Naruto flying at her, dripping wet. A plan formulated in her head so fast it wasn't even funny. She threw her legs up so she was upside down when Naruto got to her, their faces level with each other's. Kina put her hand on Naruto's head, leaning forward so that she did something like a front handspring on his head. Before she fell she grabbed Naruto's shirt collar, adding chakra to her arms as she swung the yelping blond at Sasuke.

Kina had just enough time to see Sasuke's eye widen before Naruto smashed into him. She smiled, landing on the ground about fifteen yards away from them.

"You dobe," Sasuke snapped at Naruto, shoving him off. He got to his feet. When Naruto tried to charge, also on his feet, Sasuke grasped his forearm. "Give me a little more time." Before Naruto could protest, Sasuke charged. "Don't go easy on me, or you'll end up in the hospital." The bad thing was, Kina believed he'd actually send her there. He slashed at Kina, missing her by a fraction of an inch. Kina did handsigns as quickly as she could, ending with the snake seal.

"Earth style! Earth dome jutsu!" Sasuke's eyes widened as a huge rock shot from the ground, quickly jumping back. Rock came from all four sides, slowly taking shape of a dome. Kina took in a deep breath. She did a myriad of hand seals, muttering under her breath the signs to make sure they were right. "Earth style! Earth dome explosion jutsu!"

Kina heard two sets of shouts as the earth shot out in the form of tons of rocks. Kina jumped up, not once ending the handsigns. She'd do them over and over again, but never added the charka needed. She could hear things banging against her dome, trying to break through. They finally stopped, but she wasn't done. Instead she pulled her hands back, brownish chakra surrounding her hands. "Earth style! Earth form jutsu!" Kina cried, slamming her fist together. Kina watched as the earth came towards her again, slowly closing her eyes as she took in a deep breath. Now the battle really began.

**Sasuke**

Sasuke and Naruto jumped back as the dome exploded, Kina flying out of it. She slammed her fist together, the rock that had been flying from her flying towards her. It clamped onto her body, covering everything but her face. Floating around her head like a crown were four rocks, bobbing up and down in the air, each one on the four sides of her head.

Katachi, Sasuke thought. Katachi means form, and Kina just said rockform. Could that be where her clan got its name?

"So, this is your full power?" Sasuke asked, twirling the sword around once before grasping the hilt tightly, pointing the tip at Kina. "Because, as I said before, you can't hold back against me." He ran forward, slashing at Kina. To his surprise, Kina caught it with her hand, bringing her hand up toward Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke sidestepped just enough to dodge, jumping back. He was half-way surprised that Kina just let go of his sword.

Kina did a few handsigns, her expression serious for once. It was strange, seeing her like this instead of her usual happy attitude. "Earth style! Earth bullet jutsu!" Kina pointed her palm toward him, rocks shooting from her hand and at him. Sasuke dodged, running to the side. He swung at Kina. His eyes narrowed when she saw it, but reacted about four seconds later.

She's slower in this form, Sasuke realized. The rocks must have been weighing her down. How hard must it have been to move at all with all the weight. But I can't really get a good hit in with her defence so rock hard. He needed a plan, and to do it he'd need the dobe's help. Deciding it was the best way, Sasuke jumped back toward Naruto. "Hey, dobe, I need you to listen, okay?"

"You act like I never do," Naruto muttered. "Is it my turn yet. This is getting me all pumped up watching you to fight." As if to prove his point, he punched the hair wildly.

Sasuke sighed. "Save your annoyingness for some other time, Dobe. Right now I need you to pay attention to my plan." With that, Sasuke quickly told him. Naruto's face lit up, making him go from happy to annoyingly thrilled.

"Yes! Finally my turn!" Before Sasuke could say another word, Naruto took off toward Kina.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered, shaking his head. He did, however, watch the battle as he built up his chakra.

Naruto instantly used the shadow clone jutsu, even though Sasuke had advised he not do that during his briefing of his plan. Naruto yelled as he and his clone charged, the one farthest in the back throwing a kunai. Sasuke thought it was going toward her shoulder, but Naruto, having terrible aim, accidentally sent it flying at her face. Sasuke muttered a curse word under his breath, eyes widening slightly when the rock floating closest to the spot the kunai was going out flattened out like a disk, bouncing the kunai off before turning into a ball of rock again. The rock form had really great defence.

Kina kicked at one of the clones, realizing too late that it was a mistake. Another clone came up behind her, crouching down, extending his leg, and spinning. The clone's shin connected with her foot, sweeping it out from underneath her. Kina hit the ground, all the clones jumping her at once. Sasuke just barely saw he start some handsigns before she was dog piled by clones.

"Earth style! Earth pillar armour jutsu!" Pillars suddenly shot up, knocking back almost all of the clones. Sasuke saw the real Naruto weave through the pillars and falling clones, quickly assisting the few clones that were still at Kina. One jumped up and punched at her face while another skidded underneath him and kicked up at her gut. Kina took the kick to the stomach but grabbed the other clone by the fist and slammed him down into the one who had kicked her. "You can't take me out fighting this pathetically!" she said. Only a few clones remained, Kina looking slightly tired. He could guess she wasn't used to fighting this long, but was capable of doing so. Kina completed another series of handsigns, saying "Earth style! Earth shuriken jutsu!" as there was puffs of smoke around her hand. When the smoke disappeared, Sasuke saw that Kina held three shuriken in each hand, all of them made of earth. The rest of the Narutos were in a line of seven, so Kina threw them at the outer three on each side while charging the middle.

Sasuke tensed, knowing his part was coming soon.

The shuriken slammed into the clones, making them disappear. She pulled her fist back and slammed it against the final clones face. When that one also disappeared in a puff of smoke, Kina looked around wildly, searching for the real thing. Her breathing had become labored, and Sasuke realized that was just because she was forcing herself to move faster than you were probably supposed to in the earth form.

"Rasengan!"

Kina swirled around just in time to see two Narutos, one a clone and one the real thing, coming down at her from the air, a swirling ball of chakra appearing in his hand. Kina didn't see it, but he was a little to far to the right to hit her. She still jumped back.

And that was when Sasuke reacted, letting loose all the chakra he'd built up into the katana he was holding, sending himself flying forward. Blue lightning surrounded it, flying in all sorts of directions. "Lightning style! Chidori blade jutsu!" He'd been thinking of this attack since Kina gave him the sword, but he still knew it could be ten times more powerful than he was making it. He was only fighting Kina, not trying to kill her.

Kina's eyes widened as she saw the blade of the katana flying at her, bringing her arms up to defend. His blade clashed with her arms, but this time it effected her. She screamed as she went flying back, slamming into a rock. Lightning, he knew, was the best element to use against earth style ninjutsu. Kina gasped for air, the impact apparently knocking the breath out of her. Sasuke strolled forward, watching as the earth that had been clinging to her body fell in piles around her. Sasuke rested the tip of the blade an inch from her neck, smirking triumphantly. "We win," he said.

"Sure do," Kina gasped, still breathing hard. She beamed up at him, before suddenly laughing. "That's the most fun I've had in ages." To his own surprise, Sasuke extended his hand, helping her to her feet after sheathing the elemental katana. "Would've been nice to know you could use fire and lightning."

Sasuke smirked. "Then it would've put you at an advantage and us at a disadvantage. And how would that have been fair?"

Kina's eyebrows arched. "And how is two against one fair?"

There was suddenly clapping, making them turn. They found out that the source of the noise was coming from Tsunade, a faint smile on her lips. "Well, seeing as you didn't have to beat them, it's fair." She walked forward, glancing over at Naruto as he walked over. "And seeing as you did so well against them, I think it's obvious you should be on their team. But that's all up to them."

Kina looked at Sasuke and Naruto, looking over at Kakashi for a brief moment before returning her gaze to the two boys in front of her. "Of course. Kina would make an awesome team-mate. Believe it!"

Kina smiled at him before turning to Sasuke, her eyes turning hopeful.

Sasuke looked at her for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons of having her on their team. She was defiantly strong and was pretty good at ninjutsu. Sasuke actually examined her, seeing the way her breathing was labored and how their was sweat on her forehead. She got tired quickly, but she just probably hadn't fought for a while. Her earth form could be really handy in times they needed someone with good defence. Finally he nodded, but didn't speak.

Tsunade nodded. "It's official, then. Kina is now apart of team seven."

Kina looked at Sasuke for a moment before turning to Naruto, who was beaming at her. Probably out of excitement, she ran up and hugged the blond. Sasuke grunted, beginning to turn when she turned from Naruto, running at him and giving him a hug. Taken by surprise, Sasuke didn't react at first, but then he snapped, "Get off of me!" at her. She quickly did so, a huge smiled still on her face.

"Okay," Kina said, clapping her hands together. "How about team seven goes out for ramen? I'm paying."

****

Sasuke didn't know where she got the money, but she did indeed have enough to pay for him, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura. They all ordered when they got to the ramen bar, Naruto talking excitedly to Kina while Sasuke sat on the other side of her. The seat next to Naruto was occupied by Sakura, and the seat next to her was Kakashi. The only person he was beside was Kina, and that was only because she refused to let him sit a seat or two down and had pulled him back and forced him to sit in the seat beside her.

Sasuke stared blankly at the wall in front of him, the scent of ramen invading his nose. He was aware of the voices beside of him, but the words seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Sasuke glanced down at the katana at his waist, bringing one hand down to rest on the hilt. It was still hard to believe Kina would give him such a powerful weapon. He'd thought of Chidori blade before, but to actually be able to use it when he'd never practiced because of the katana was amazing. Sasuke was barely conscious of the fact that Ayame placed a bowl of ramen in front of him. He was still reviewing the battle, making sure he knew everything he could've learned from the fight. It would be wasteful for him not to take advantage of the knowledge the fight could bring him. The info could help him further along his life. Every person had weaknesses and strengths, and one of the people may be like him and have the same weakness. Or seeing how others blocked his moves and approve them. Even if he was staying in Konoha, he would grow stronger. Although Sasuke wasn't going to Orochimaru, every cell in his body wanted to kill the one who betrayed him and his clan.

"Sasuke?"

Kina's voice snapped Sasuke out of his reverie. He turned to look at the blond haired girl, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?" he snapped after she didn't say anything. The dobe glanced at him, quitting whatever conversation he'd been having with Sakura to look back.

Kina's eyes filled with worry. "Are you okay? You're clenching your fist so tightly it looks like you're trying to cut your palm." To his surprise, she rested her hand on his, making him look down. She was right. His fist were shaking and his knuckles were white. Sasuke suddenly became aware of how his fingernails were truly starting to dig into his skin.

"I'm fine," Sasuke muttered, jerking his hand away from her, turning away. "Nothing that you should be concerned about, at least."

"Sasuke-kun!" a familiar voice cried. "You're here too?" Everyone turned to see who was talking, but Sasuke didn't need to.

"Oh, hey-" Naruto began, but then something blurred away. Sasuke glanced back just in time to see Kina stop in front of a blond haired girl with green eyes. She wore a purple sleeveless shirt that showed a bit of her stomach, which was covered in tape, a purple skirt with slits up the side, wrapping wrapped around her thighs, and blue ninja shoes. Around her waist was a blue leaf headband.

"Hello. I'mKinaKatachi,thenewestmemberofteamseven. What'syourname?" Kina spoke so quickly it sounded like one huge word.

She laughed, answering, "I'm Ino of team ten. Nice to meet you, Kina."

An amused laugh sounded behind them, so everyone looked. Behind Ino and Kina stood the rest of team ten, including Shikamaru, Chouji, and Asuma. Kina practically jumped over to them, instantly introducing herself.

The amused laugh, which had come from Asuma, filled the air as she introduced herself to him. "Asuma Sarutobi." He smiled. "If everyone had as much spirit as you, we wouldn't have as many slackers."

"If you're talking about me," Shikamaru began, sitting down at the end of the row of seats, Chouji sitting beside of him. Ino sat down on the side of Sasuke Kina hadn't been sitting on, leaving a space between her and Chouji for Asuma, "you're correct."

Kina cocked her head to the side, examining the slouching boy. She smiled at him. "Shikamaru, you don't look that lazy," she remarked.

Shikamaru sighed, looking away. "People with that much energy are troublesome," was all he said.

Kina simply laughed, coming over to sit by Sasuke. "Hey, Sasuke," Ino said. "Where'd you get that sword? I've never seen you carry one."

"Yeah, I was wondering that, too," piped in Chouji. "It looks awesome, though."

Sasuke reached back like he had earlier and rested his hand on the hilt. He clenched the hilt after a moment, suddenly hating the fact they were staring at the gift Kina had given him. "That's none of your concern."

"I gave it to him," Kina said at the same time. She was shot a glare, which she didn't seem to understand. "What's wrong with them knowing I gave you a gift?"

"What?" Ino was suddenly clinging to his arm, looking up at him with huge, glimmering green eyes. "How could you except her gift when every time I gave you something, you turned it down?" she asked him.

Sasuke sighed. "Because all of your gifts were useless," he said. He didn't even regret it after seeing the hurt on Ino's face. He flinched when Kina whacked him in the arm.

"Be nice, Sasuke." Kina glared at him, but it didn't seem whole-hearted. It was probably because she was just automatically nice.

He raised an eyebrow. "Or what, exactly?"

Kina blinked, and then beamed at him. "Honestly, I'm not all that sure," she replied. She laughed as Sasuke sighed, shaking her head.

"You're as much a dobe as Naruto at times, Kina." Sasuke's remark made Naruto jump into the argument. Sasuke was called a myriad of insults, and he quickly returned just as many. And through it all, he thought, he fell a strange comfort, safe feeling. Had he seriously gotten so used to this kind of life? Or was it just the fact that he felt more powerful now after his fight with Kina? He chose the latter option, thinking there was no way it could've been he'd gotten used to the life.

****

Sasuke had went to bed right after he got home from the ramen celebration, the events of the day exhausting him. After the celebration, Kina had forced him to go shopping for groceries for them since they lived right next together. He made a mental note that he'd strangle her next time she made him do that. But now he was suddenly sitting bolt straight up in bed, his senses going on overdrive as he felt a humungous chakra.

Sasuke, already getting used to the sword, automatically grabbed it, putting it in front of him as he searched the area in front of him, making sure he was in no immediate danger. After a moment, he got to his feet, creeping toward his window. It was a little distance behind the hotel, but it would be faster if he just ran up the building and into the forest that was behind it. Doing so, he unlatched the window and opened it, crouching on the window sill. He focused his chakra to his bare feet, jumping up. His feet connected with the wall, and the moment it did he began to run up the building. Everything was silent in the still night, even his footsteps such a dull thud he barely heard it. Yet through it all, that chakra made him uneasy. It felt familiar, but the power that came with it wasn't.

He reached the top, looking around to make sure nobody was watching out there window or something and make the mistake of thinking he was running away. When Sasuke was sure nobody was, he ran to the other side of the building and jumped. As he fell, he grabbed a tree branch, slowing his fall. When he let go, he landed on the ground with a dull thud. After scanning the area one more time, he took off. Sasuke was getting closer to the chakra, and it felt like it was getting stronger.

When he could almost see the source, he crouched down behind a bush, the figure a mere silhouette in the night. Sasuke walked forward, making sure to not make any noise whatsoever. He crept forward, pulling his sword back. Sasuke charged forward-

And then skidded to a stop. He glared at the figure's back, unsure what to do. He could see the shinobi's blond hair, yellow shirt, and white shorts. Their breathing was coming out in gasps, hands clenched tightly as they came up, starting handsigns.

One more thing. That figure was Kina.

"Lightning style!" Kina said, ending the handsigns, but Sasuke, looking from a point only a little to her right, couldn't see what the last handsign was. "Lightning form jutsu!" Chakra crackled around her, her body glowing a light yellow. Personally, Sasuke thought she was being surrounded by light. The glow suddenly solidified, turning into something that took a moment for Sasuke to recognize. Lightning. It covered her whole body, seeming to cling to her, but the lighting also moved. There was a crown of lightning going around her head, probably meant for the same protection for the face the rock form's crown provided, only this was one full strip of lightning, not four different strips of lightning. Kina slouched as the jutsu suddenly ended.

She's exhausted, Sasuke thought. How long had she been out there training?

Kina began doing more hand seals, and this time when she ended, Sasuke barely saw water going from her right hand, which looked like half a tiger sign, spinning around the left, which looked the same. Water came from the right hand, engulfing Kina's left arm and slowly travelling up it. Before it even got to her shoulder, it suddenly fell to the ground, quickly followed by Kina.

Sasuke reacted without even thinking. He jumped forward, reaching out and grabbing Kina. He brought her to his chest, skidding to a stop. When he looked down at Kina, he saw just how exhausted she was. Kina's eyes seemed half open, sweat covered her face, and even though a moment ago he'd felt a huge amount of chakra, now she was completely out. How much did the form jutsus take from her? And how many did she have? Sasuke slowly got to his feet, looking at her for a moment longer before he started walking back to the hotel.

"I must be dreaming," Kina suddenly said, making Sasuke look down. "There's no way Uchiha would carry me, no matter what." For the first time, Sasuke thought of how Kina had called him Sasuke while they were at the ramen shop. He thought she did it without thinking, but the next moment he was resting her head against his chest. "Sasuke's too cold for that."

His eyes narrowed. What did she mean by that.

"I think, though, that I would've been happier last time when I was with the Uchihas if I'd known you, Uchiha. Maybe the cell wouldn't have been as cold then," Kina murmured.

Cells?

Sasuke flinched as Kina suddenly grasped a fistful of blue cloth from his shirt. He looked down, eyes widening when he saw tears coming out her eyes. "Promise me something, Uchiha."

Sasuke didn't say anything for a moment, figuring she was half asleep. But she may think that this was the dream, which would explain the strange things she was saying. "What?" he finally asked.

Kina smiled slightly, but then it was gone. She looked on the edge of fully asleep, but she was still slightly there. "Promise me you won't die." Her voice was so low Sasuke had to strain to hear it, and he stopped when he did, surprised.

What did she mean? Promise he wouldn't die? Everyone died, but she didn't mean that. What in the world was the female Katachi talking about. Sasuke glared at her, seeing her slowly dozing off. She smiled ever so slightly, however, when he said, "Okay. I promise." He watched as she slowly succumbed to the exhaustion that must've been pulling down on her.

Kina Katachi, Sasuke thought as he stared at her, slowly beginning to walk again. He thought of everything that had happened, the way she acted, the things she said, anything that surrounded her. "Who are you?" he whispered aloud, thankful she wasn't awake and unable to answer.


	5. Uchiha VS Katachi

"So what do you think?" Sakura asked.

Kina watched her with a bored expression as she shuffled through clothes on the clothes rack at the Ninja Wear store, searching for something she thought looked nice yet easy to fight in. Kina agreed some of the things she picked were nice, but she tended to ignore most of the other things. "Of what?" Kina asked, knowing she didn't mean some clothes or anything since Sakura hadn't picked out a shirt or pair of pants yet.

It was a girl's day out thing, and Kina didn't mind it. She wasn't all for shopping, but Kina enjoyed getting to know the other female member of team seven. She hadn't got to spend much time with her, but Sakura seemed okay.

"Of Sasuke and Naruto," Sakura said, grabbing a dress and holding it up. She glanced at Kina, sighing and putting it back when Kina shook her head. "I mean, sure, you haven't known them long, but what impression do you have of them so far?"

Kina thought of this for a long moment, not answering until sometime after Sakura showed her two more dresses. "They're both like total opposites, actually. Naruto's more like the sun and Sasuke's the moon. But I can tell both of them have felt pain before, and I mean a lot of it."

Sakura considered this. "Yeah. I see what you mean about the sun and moon thing."

She nodded, but elaborated despite Sakura saying this. "I mean, Naruto seems to shine and draw people to him. Naruto is warm and inviting." Kina bobbed her head from side to side, thinking of how to describe Sasuke. "Uchiha, well, he's just so cold and only pulls people to him because of the mysteries he holds. He's so closed off to everyone, not letting anyone get close. Actually, he sorta seems as emotional as a piece of rock in space."

Sakura glanced at her, her eyes thoughtful. "You're mind is pretty interesting," she remarked. Sakura, who was now on the other side of the rack, came around to hold up a shirt to Kina's upper half. "What do you think?"

"That I don't want to spend you money on things for me," Kina replied.

Sakura smiled. "I don't mind. Honest," she said, but turned around anyway and put the dress up. "How about who's stronger? I mean, it's pretty obvious Sasuke is. So I should be asking is what you think of their skills."

Kina smiled. "Actually, I think Naruto's stronger than Sasuke."

Sakura swirled around, her face looking like to capitalized o's with a dash between them (0_0). "Oh," Sakura said, chuckling. "You're joking."

Kina cocked her head to the side as she stared at the pink haired kunochi. "No, I'm serious. In my eyes, Naruto is stronger than Sasuke."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "How is that, Kina? Sasuke would be considered the one who beat you."

Kina smiled, looking away. Finally, she shrugged. "I can just _feel_ it. And it seems more like Naruto has more strength that he keeps hidden. I can tell you right now if it came to serious fight, Naruto would be stronger because his will to protect is so strong, but Sasuke… I think it's his coldness that keeps him from truly getting stronger," Kina explained.

Sakura cocked her head to the side as she examined Kina, and she could tell that Sakura was considering what she said. Sakura sighed. "I still say Sasuke's stronger," she disagreed.

Kina shrugged. "I never said you had to agree with me." Kina began glancing around, deciding to help Sakura out since she couldn't find anything to wear herself. Finally seeing something, she smiled and pulled it off the rack. Kina turned toward Sakura to show-"

"Ouch!" Kina exclaimed when she collided with another person. Kina stumbled back, not even waiting to see who it was to start bowing and saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry," over and over again.

"It's fine," a male voice grumbled.

Kina looked in front of her, smiling apologetically at the teen in front of her. He was about her age with pale lavender eyes, fair skin, and long brown hair in a ponytail at the very end. He wore a headband similar to her own, a beige shirt with the collar raised to circle his neck, black shorts, and blue ninja shoes.

Kina gave him an apologetic grin, then she extended her hand. "Hello. I'm Kina Katachi," she said.

The boy looked her over with emotionless eyes, finally smiling at well, but it seemed like he was only doing it to be polite. "Neji Hyuuga," he said, ignoring Kina's hand.

Kina's smile got bigger. "Nice to, well, run into you," Kina said. She glanced around him when she saw something pink coming toward them. "Hey, Sakura!" When the pink-haired kunochi turned toward them, Sakura smiled.

"Oh. Hey, Neji," Kina's team mate said. "What are you doing here?"

Neji regarded Sakura with the same emotionless expression as he had her. "I was searching for Tenten and Lee. Tenten told me she was coming down her and that Lee was coming with her. Guy-sensei was wanting to get in some practice before our next mission."

Sakura looked at Neji apologetically. "Sorry, but I haven't seen them," she said. "I was just shopping with Kina. She's the newest member of team seven."

Neji nodded. "That's fine."

"We'll let you know if we see them, though," Sakura told him. She grabbed Kina's forearm. "Come on, Kina. Let's get-"

"Hey, Neji! What're you doing here?" an unfamiliar voice suddenly called from Kina's right. "What are you doing here?" A brown haired female came up to them, followed by a bored looking male. The female had brown eyes, her hair up in two buns, and tan skin. She wore a pink shirt with yellow cloth going from a little to the right and left of the middle three times along the shirt's middle, dark blue pants, and blue ninja shoes. Around her forehead was a blue headband.

The boy had bowl-like black hair, round black eyes, and extremely bushy black eyebrows. He wore a green jumpsuit, wrappings around his arm, orange leg warmers, and blue ninja shoes. He wore a red headband around his waist.

"Found them," Sakura said, smiling.

Neji sighed. "Hey, Tenten. Hello, Lee," he said. "I came here to find you-"

"Sakura!" the boy with the bowl-like hair suddenly shouted, appearing in front of Sakura and taking her hand in his. He gave her a huge smile, the light actually gleaming off his teeth. "Your beauty has brightened my day more than the sun ever could!"

Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes. "Good to see you, too, Lee." Sakura looked like she was about to punch Lee, but she didn't.

"Hello," Kina said, making both Lee and the girl who must've been Tenten turn their attention to her. "You must be Tenten and Lee. We were just about to go search for you for Neji."

Lee's eyes shone as he looked Kina over. He suddenly appeared in front of her, a smile on his face. "Is it just me, or did my already bright day just get brighter?" he said. "Please, may I know your name, beautiful maiden?"

Kina laughed, glancing over at Sakura. She sighed, rolling her eyes. Tenten shook her head at Lee. Neji just looked away, clearly bored. "I'm Kina Katachi," Kina finally replied, looking at Lee again. "And thanks for the compliment."

"Why haven't we ever met you before?" Tenten asked.

"She's new here," Sakura explained. "Actually, she's the one who's going with Naruto and Sasuke for the chunin exams."

Tenten smiled. "That brings back memories," she said. Then she chuckled nervously and rubbed her back. "Painful memories, that is."

Sakura nodded. "What Temari did must've really messed up your back."

Neji regarded Kina with thoughtful eyes. "What village did you come from?" he asked out of nowhere.

For the first time since Kina arrived at Konoha, she clamed up, averting her eyes. "That's none of your business." Kina didn't mean to snap, but she accidentally did. She took in a deep breath, pushing back painful memories that filled her mind. _Crap_, Kina thought when Neji's gaze became suspicious. She hoped he wouldn't ask anymore questions, but her wish just refused to come true.

"Where's your family?"

No response came from Kina, but more painful memories flooded her mind.

"Did they not come with you?"

Kina ground her teeth. Neji was smart. He could tell there was a reason besides it being personal that she wasn't telling him.

"Why'd you come to Konoha?" Neji pried.

"Shut up!" Kina couldn't help it. Every word he said brought more memories. Kina swirled around, dropped the clothes Sakura had had her hold, and ran. Screams echoed in her mind, repeating over and over again.

_Why did you come to Konoha?_

Kina felt tears leak from her eyes.

_I can take the pain away,_ a familiar voice from her memories said in her head, sending chills down her spine. _Just bring him to me._

**Sakura**

"Neji!" Tenten exclaimed, clearly as shocked by Neji's sudden interrogation as Sakura was. "Why'd you do that? It was obvious she wasn't going to tell you anything."

"She's hiding something," Neji said, watching as Kina's figure retreated, running out the store's door. Sakura would've gone after her, but she was too surprised to think about moving at the time.

"Yeah, well, everyone has secrets, Neji," Lee said. "Did you see her when she ran? She looked on the verge of tears? How could you hurt her like that?"

"I was just asking her questions," Neji said, still watching Kina's back.

"That she clearly didn't want to answer," Tenten said. She sighed. "Well, I doubt she'll want to be your friend any time soon."

Sakura gazed at the older genin, then she looked at Neji. "If she has secrets, she has secrets. It's not like we have to know what's happened to her in the passed," she remarked. She looked from the genin to the door of the shop, which Kina had just run out of.

Neji glanced at Sakura, seeming to think that she was wrong, but then he sighed. "Come on, Tenten, Lee, let's get going." Without another word, Neji turned and left.

Tenten sighed. "See ya, Sakura. Tell Kina I said sorry for Neji," she said before running to catch up with her teammate. Lee simply waved before following.

**Sasuke**

Sasuke walked toward a huge brick building, the words "Konoha Library" in huge white letters along the top. He felt weird going into the library because of his reason for going. He still wasn't sure it was the best of ideas. He did, however, know he had to find out what he wanted to know somehow.

The library was extremely quiet, which Sasuke was unused to. Then again, he'd been putting up with Kina for a couple days. She was always talkative. Not only that, but the air was cool when the outside weather was hot.

He looked around, unable to guess how many books was in the library. There had to be at least one book in the vast library that had the answers to his questions. His mind raced, trying to figure out what the event with Kina could've meant.

"May I help you?" a girl asked when Sasuke approached the front desk. The girl was about a five or six older than Sasuke. She had strawberry colored hair that framed her face, bright red eyes behind round glasses, and fair skin. She wore a casual black dress.

Sasuke nodded. "I was wondering if you had any books a certain clan. The Katachi clan, to be exact," he said, noting the way she instantly paled when he said Kina's clan name.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid we don't," she said, almost automatically.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You didn't even check," he pointed out.

She put her hand on her hip. "I said we don't, and that means we don't. If I have to have somebody escort you out, you'll never be allowed back in this library again," the librarian said.

Sasuke met her resolute gaze with one of his owns. Deciding it would be best to just listen, Sasuke sighed. "Fine," he grumbled, turning away. He turned away, pretending to walk toward the door. He got to the door, and then he glanced over his shoulder.

The girl was staring off in the distance, a thoughtful look in her eyes.

Which meant she wasn't watching him.

Sasuke quickly walked over to a row of books, making it so he was no longer in the girl's line of sight. He ran his hand over the spine of the books, looking at the titles for anything that had to do with the Uchiha or Katachi clan. Some titles interested him, so he quickly read the summary. When Sasuke didn't see anything that meant the book could hold information he needed, he put it back and continued his search.

Sasuke searched for at least an hour with no progress whatsoever. Sasuke started glaring at the books, not evening caring where he put them when he put them back he was so annoyed. "There has to be some book on the Katachi clan. There's books that tell about all clans, even the ones that aren't from the leave."

He was just about to give up his search when his foot (painfully) his something. "Ouch," he hissed, glaring down to see what had caused him pain. Sasuke just now noticed he'd been dragging his feet, and because of that he'd kicked something. What was strange was that that something was under a rug.

Curious, Sasuke bent down, glancing around as he did. He was in the very back section, a place he knew very few people visited because it only had books that were about a century or two old and in very bad shape. When he didn't see anyone, he lifted the rug to see what he had kicked. When he saw a bit of the wooden floor lifted, darkness barely visible underneath, his eyes widened.

Glancing around once again, he lifted the wood far enough to see stairs below it. Sasuke examined it, wondering what could possibly have to be hidden in a library. Pursing his lips, he started his descent.

The staircase wasn't too long, so Sasuke reached the bottom after only ten seconds. He hated the way it was so silent that he kept hearing his own footsteps thrown back at him. He would've felt more comfortable not hearing anything at all. At least he'd know if someone was trying to sneak up on him.

The room wasn't too big, leaving just enough room for him to take a few steps either way without stepping on one of the many boxes stored in the room. There was a few books setting on top of each other on one of the boxes, the spine facing him. It was because the spines were facing Sasuke that he saw the title.

_Uchiha VS Katachi_

_What the heck?_ Sasuke wondered. He walked over to the book, taking it off the top of a pile of books. It wasn't too old, but there was something written on the front. He didn't understand why, but the word _Classified_ was written on it. Confused, Sasuke flipped the book to the table of contents, his eyes slightly narrowed.

It wasn't until he got to the tenth chapter that one of the chapter names intrigued him. _Katachi's Secret_. Wondering what it could mean, Sasuke flipped to the page it said the chapter began.

His eyes narrowed. He'd glanced back at the number of the page that was supposed to be before the beginning of the tenth chapter, than at the beginning of chapter eleven on the page beside of it.

"What in the world?" Sasuke muttered. He glared at it for a moment, and then he realized the jagged edges in the very middle of the book. Sasuke raised his left hand, balancing the book on the palm of his right, and ran his hand over the jagged edges. It took him a moment to realize what had happened.

Someone had ripped the whole tenth chapter out of the book.

Sasuke felt annoyance creep into him. He'd come here for answers, and someone had ripped the answers out from him. Why? What was so important about the secret? Deciding that the rest of the book could give him answers, he glanced at the chapter name of the eleventh chapter. _Kidnapping_

_Despite the fact that the Hokage told them they could not, that as long as the Katachi's secret didn't affect them,_ Sasuke read, _the Uchiha clan sent one of their members to kidnap the Katachi girl the following week._

_The Uchiha returned only a day later, the girl in his arms. He had many wounds that he claimed he got from the Katachi girl's Guardian. After treating the Uchiha member, they took the girl to a cell hidden deep in the prison._

After that Sasuke read about how the Hokage found out about what the Uchiha were doing, but they ignored all his orders to end all of it and give the girl back, which ended the chapter. He read through the rest, all of them talking about plans, attacks, or events that happened. He was surprise when he finally got to the last chapter.

_Rescue Mission_

_Nobody knew how much worse it could get. The Katachi had declared war on the Uchiha and would attack the village if they did not give the princess of their country back._

Sasuke momentarily considered going back to see what country since he'd missed it, but decided not to.

_People were beginning to think they would have to either fight the grand Uchiha clan or the greatly feared Katachi and Jikoku, a clan who was long friends of the Katachi. The thought all hope was lost._

_Then something unexpected happened. The leader of the Uchiha, Fugaku, was then caught by surprise. He'd thought sending his children away for two months would prevent it, but it didn't._

The paragraph shocked Sasuke. His _father_ had led the Uchiha into was with the Katachi clan! He reread the paragraph countless time, then remembered the trip they were talking about. Three months before Sasuke started going to the Academy, his aunt and uncle took him and Itachi on a two month vacation to one of the best hot springs in the world. Only now did he realize why they'd done it.

_One of the Uchiha and one of the Jikoku children who claimed to be the princess's guardian, sneaked into the prison where the girl was being held in. Along with the fact that this Uchiha was one of the strongest Uchiha, the Jikoku's could use time ninjutsu, making the pair of boys impossible to beat._

_They found the girl being held in the very back of the prison, so scared she almost didn't even recognize the boy. They unlocked her prison and got the girl out of there, retreating toward the forest. It wasn't until they were closer to the Light Village than they were the Leaf Village that they stopped. It was then the princess's name was first spoken in front of a Leaf villager._

_The boy turned to the girl, gave her a hug, and said, _Thank God your alive, Kina!_ he said._

Sasuke's eyes froze on her name. He could barely even process the words that came after her name. Two things dawned on him at the same time as he looked at this. First of all, Kina was a princess of a village known as The Light Village. Secondly, Kina had been kidnapped and imprisoned in Konoha. And it had been by his own family.


	6. The New Form

Fire burned around her, encircling a sitting Kina. She had her hands to her ears, trying to block out the screams of the people around her. Her hands were badly burned from trying over and over again to get out of the fire to help, but every time she failed.

"It's your fault we're dead," familiar voices whispered to her. "Your fault that our beloved ones are now aching from loss."

"I didn't mean to," Kina sobbed. "I'm sorry." She repeated this, over and over, as if it would make up for what she had done. As if it would bring them back or ease their loved ones' loss.

The area suddenly changed, turning into complete darkness. Kina remained in her sitting position, still repeating the same thing. The next words were just as painful as the ones of the familiar voices.

_Why did you come to Konoha?_

_Just bring him to me._

Why, she wondered, couldn't her past stop haunting her. No matter how recent, there was always something there, trying to tear her apart. She felt as if each word that was spoken was a dagger piercing her chest before tearing away another chunk of her.

Yet another thing from her past showed. A figure suddenly appeared in front of her, a smile on his face. His black eyes stared at her, reassuring words coming from his mouth. "Don't worry, Kina. I'll be fine."

"They'll kill you for saving me," Kina said. She sounded younger, fear in her voice.

"No they won't. I'm too valuable to them," the boy said.

"Kina, we have to get going," Krino suddenly said. She couldn't see him. She couldn't only hear his voice and feel him tugging on her wrist.

"Promise me," she said. "Promise me you won't die."

The boy smiled gently at her. "Don't worry, Kina."

Then his form shimmered. He changed. When he finally stopped shimmering, she saw another familiar boy in front of her. Their eyes were a similar obsidian color. This boy's eyes, however, were filled with hidden pain and anger. He even had the raven's wing colored hair and pale skin.

"I promise," Sasuke said. When he opened his mouth again, words didn't come out. Instead he coughed up blood.

And it landed right on Kina.

"Sasuke!" she screeched. A blade had gone through his heart, coming out on the other side so that Kina could see part of it. A sickening wet sound filled the air as the blade was pulled out. Sasuke stared at Kina, his eyes unseeing, before he fell forward. She caught him, the force making her go down with him.

It was then she saw what was behind Sasuke. The blade had come from between the tip of a snake's tongue, that tongue retreating to the snakes mouth while the sword returned to its place within its throat. The snake had a pure white scaly body with olive colored eyes. It looked like the snake had purple eyeliner on.

"He's mine," the snake hissed. And then it lunged.

****

Kina woke up, frozen in place on her bed. Her hands were clenched in the material, her body completely still.

Then she started gasping for air, staring at the white ceiling above her. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, threatening to break lose from its containment area. She closed her eyes, trying to force her heart to slow. When it still didn't, she rolled onto her side, staring out her window and at the river across from their apartment.

Kina closed her eyes again, knowing that she wouldn't be able to return to sleep.

****

Sasuke pushed open the door that led to the hall with the Hokage's office. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, his mind shifting from the book he read and why the Hokage would call him to the her office. Every time he thought about the book, he felt anger spark within him. It wasn't because of what his clan had done. According to the book, they'd done it because it was what they'd believed was right. What made him angry was the fact he felt like he had to make it up to Kina somehow. Just because his clan thought it was what was best didn't mean it hadn't left a scar on her heart.

He sighed, shaking his head as if that would rid him of thoughts of his debt to Kina. It was just plain stupid. He looked forward again, turning a corner and walking up to the door. It was slightly ajar, voices coming from within, causing Sasuke to pause.

"You have to get that demon out of this village!" a male voice exclaimed. Sasuke glanced in to see a man with graying hair, a loose white shirt with long sleeves, and blue jeans. His brown eyes blazed with rage. Sasuke knew him from a mission they'd had to do for him once - Osamu.

Tsunade was in her seat, leaning back as she stared at the man, annoyance as clear in her eyes as Osamu's rage was in his. "I've already told you that I won't do that, Osamu. I have no reason to remove her from Konoha."

Her? Who was it that they were talking about?

"No, but I can give you a great reason. She's like a plague, bringing death right behind her!" the man snapped. "I came her to try and avoid her. If you keep her here, you're precious villagers will die."

Tsunade glared at him. "I'll tell you a thousand times, already, and I refuse to repeat myself. Either you get out of here, or I swear I'll throw you in jail for the day."

"Oh. Hello, Sasuke."

The female voice behind Sasuke made him jerk in surprise. Despite being caught eavesdropping, he acted completely normal as he turned to face that very female. "Hello, Shizune."

The Hokage's office had grown silent. Sasuke, deciding it was no use just standing there, pushed the door the rest of the way open. Both Osamu and Tsunade were looking at him. The man's eyes still held rage, but he didn't continue his argument. Sasuke wasn't sure if it was because he now knew of Sasuke's presence or because of Tsunade's threat, but he walked past Shizune and him, walking in the direction of the stairs.

"Good to see that you're on time, Sasuke. Sorry about Osamu being here when you were supposed to be. I didn't expect him," Tsunade apologized.

"Hn."

Tsunade sighed, used to his usual behavior. According to the way he was acting, he apparently either didn't hear much or didn't know who they were talking about. "So, I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here." As she spoke, her dark haired companion walked over to stand beside Tsunade, simply standing there and nothing more.

Sasuke's silence all the answer Tsunade needed, she continued. "Well, as you may know, it's usually easier for someone in ones clan to teach one their kekkei genkai. But, seeing as we have no Katachi's here and Kina needs to train for the upcoming chunin exams….."

She just left it hanging, knowing Sasuke understood. "Why can't Kakashi train her? I need to train myself."

Tsunade smiled. "Because Kakashi is letting Naruto have his turn and is training him," she replied. "And you can train with Kina, allowing both of you to learn."

"Are you trying to make me run away again?" Sasuke demanded. "I mean, seriously, I'm about ready to run off a cliff to get away from her."

"Oh, she's nowhere near that bad," Shizune said.

"She's a female Naruto."

Tsunade chuckled. "Well, then you'll get practice for when you have to be by the real Naruto, huh?"

Not for the first time, Sasuke wanted to strangle the Hokage.

"Just look at it as a type of mission, okay? And because it is a mission, it is your duty as a ninja to accept it," Tsunade said, trying to hide her smile behind her hands.

Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You know, I think that you're just doing this for kicks," he grumbled, turning and walking out of the room.

****

_She's as bad as Kakashi,_ Sasuke thought as he lay on the ground, watching the clouds drift across the blue curtain known as the sky. He had told Kina to meet him at team seven's training ground around ten, and it was already twelve. How were they supposed to train if one of the members training wasn't there? He'd already practiced with his sword for an hour and a half, but he didn't want to waste all his chakra by continuing to practice.

Sasuke sat up when he heard the sound of someone running. As he'd expected, it was Kina, holding something that was wrapped up in cloth. "Sorry I'm late, Uchiha." To Sasuke' surprise, she had dark bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept.

"Hn." He got to his feet, his eyes following Kina as she walked over to a rock, placing the wrapped object on a flat rock.

"I was late because it took me forever to get the rice balls just right. You like rice balls, right?" she asked as she turned back to face him.

Despite his best attempts not to think of what he'd read, his mind's eye made him see a younger Kina, curled up in a ball, the damp, dark cells doing nothing to improve the depressing scene. Her shoulders shook as she cried, unable to do anything. Nothing more than a prisoner.

"Heeellooo," Kina said, suddenly in front of him, waving her hand in his face.

"Don't get so close to me," Sasuke instantly snapped, stepping away from her. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "How about you use that mouth of yours to say something useful and tell me exactly what your abilities are?"

Completely ignoring the cruel part of his sentence, she smiled and nodded. "That would probably help." Even though Sasuke had just gotten to his feet, he was made to sit down by Kina grabbing his wrist and forcing him down as she sat.

"It's pretty basic. As my clan name suggests, my jutsu has to do with forms. Like all Katachi members, I have the ability to go into a form for each of the elements. As you've seen, I have a rock form, which helps my defense by giving me armor made of earth. My lightning form increases my speed greatly, making it great for taijutsu. These are the two forms I'm best at. The other forms are water form, allowing me to swim swiftly and I can breath underwater, fire form, which keeps me from getting burned and allows me to manipulate fire, and air form, which allows me to control air. I can even walk on air if I like. There are other forms, less than thirty percent of the Katachi clan having one of these forms.

"To tell you the truth," Kina said, looking down at the ground, "I'm one of the worst in the Katachi clan at our kekkei genkai. Most kids can at least go into all the forms by the age of nine. I couldn't even go into more than one form when I was eight, and that was the lightning form. After that, well, I left the village. Since then I've managed to teach myself the rock form, a jutsu my teacher had been trying to teach me prior to me leaving."

Sasuke's eyes widened. She'd taught herself the jutsu and had gotten as good at it as she was. She could even move faster than anyone would expect a person weighed down by rocks covering their own body. If the jutsu was meant for protection, he doubted that meant you needed speed. How hard did she train herself to be able to get so used to the weight? Thinking of this brought back the memory of two nights ago, when Kina had trained until she fainted.

"What form are you trying to learn now?" Sasuke asked, only remembering a moment later that he'd seen her trying to do the water form jutsu.

"I'm trying to learn how to go into water form. It's one of the easier ones since I can draw moisture from the air to help. That's the hardest part of using the form jutsus: creating the element to make the form," Kina told him. "Rock form is the easiest since there's always rocks around me. Lightning form is actually with the harder ones. You wouldn't expect it, but air is one of the hardest one to use because you really have to focus to gain control of it. Wind doesn't exactly like being tamed."

"How can an element like or dislike anything?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

Sasuke sighed, getting to his feet for the second time in what felt like five minutes. "Okay. I think I have an idea of how to help you train with your water form. It's probably the easy way and you won't be as good at it any other way, but it's a way to get used to the form before you're better at it."

"What's your method?" Kina asked.

"Easy. We're going to go train on the water."

Kina was silent for a moment, and then there was a thud as she face palmed so hard she had a red hand print on her forehead. "Holy crap. How have I not thought of that already?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Let's just get this over with. The sooner your training is done, the sooner I can start my own. How about we train for two hours?"

Kina smiled. "Sure."

He sighed in exasperation. "You would have said the same thing if I said ten minutes, wouldn't you?"

She nodded. "Of course I would. After all, you are doing this as a favor for me. I guess that you really do have a heart, huh, Uchiha?"

"Shut up. I'm only doing it because Tsunade's making me," Sasuke snapped. Sheesh. Every single thing she did seemed to annoy him.

"Tsunade can't make you do anything," she pointed out.

"Either shut up or I'm leaving."

Kina smiled again, pantomiming zipping her mouth shut. Would it still be considered training if he just knocked her out and left? He looked at her again, at those bright, excited eyes. He sighed through his nose. She was his comrade. He had to at least try to be kind. If she was as much like Naruto as she acted, then for all he knew he'd end up being blown away by her power. Yes, she was an idiot most of the time, but still, there were times she wasn't so bad.

He began to walk toward the water, but then he paused. "Kina," he said without turning, "you may not have told us your dream, but can you at least tell me your reason for becoming strong?"

Sasuke didn't see her expression, but she did hesitate. "I guess to protect the people I care about." He tensed when he noted the pain in her voice. He glanced over his shoulder to see her looking down, her hands clenched at her side. He wanted to know what was causing that anger. He also wanted to know what had caused that pain she seemed to always be in, torturing her at times.

Sasuke simply nodded, knowing from experience that prying wouldn't do anything. When people had done that with him, he'd wanted to snap at them. He continued walking toward the small lake, adding chakra to his feet as he walked onto it. He stopped in the middle, turning to face Kina as she followed. Sasuke stuffed his hands in his pockets, watching as she stopped a few yards from him. "Okay then, do your jutsu."

Kina nodded, closing her eyes as she concentrated. She raised her left hand, forming half a tiger sign while her right hand did the same. As she raised her right hand, the water followed, raising up to surround it. Kina swirled her right hand around her left hand. As she did, the water engulfed her left hand, spreading across her body to create an aura of water. It continued to do that, Kina biting her lip as she concentrated. It almost completely covered her body when she suddenly gasped, falling to her knees. When she did, the water fell off her, joining the rest of the lake.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked, not making any move to approach her.

Kina nodded as she got to one knee, panting as she rested against her one raised knee. "Fine. It just take a lot of chakra the first time we use these jutsu. The more we use it, the less chakra it takes because we know more how to get it to be more like part of our body with our will rather than our chakra." Taking in a deep breath, she got to her feet, stumbling for a second before regaining her balance.

"Good. Try again then."

This continued for one of their two hours, the struggle it took for Kina just to get it to stay becoming greater than just getting it to engulf her body. She collapsed for what seemed like the thousandth time.

_If it's this hard to do it on water, how hard must it be to do it on the ground?_ Sasuke wondered as she got to her feet again. She had almost as much stamina as Naruto, refusing to stay down. If there was one thing he could say about Kina, it was that she sure was determined. His hand fell to the hilt of his sword, wrapping around it. No. If he was only allowed to say one thing about Kina it would be that she was kind. No matter what had happened in her past, she continued to be happy and tried to spread that happiness the best she could.

Sasuke shook his head. What was he thinking? Then again, he'd rather think about that than the debt he felt like he was in. He inwardly groaned, the thought of that bringing up the fact he did feel in her debt. "How about one more try and then you can rest?" he suggested.

Kina nodded, raising her arm to wipe of the sweat that had gathered on her forehead. "Sounds good to me," she replied, getting to her feet. Sasuke momentarily wondered who would last longer with the kind of training Kina was going through: Naruto or Kina? It seemed like the people who had previously been complete failures had the most determination and stamina. At least Kina could admit it. Naruto never would. It was as if those failures helped fuel their power now.

Kina took in deep breaths, focusing as she went through the same process she'd been doing for the past hour. The water engulfed her body, forming an aura of water around her. Kina's eyes squeezed shut as she came to the same struggle as before. Sasuke could only guess whether she was forcing the water with chakra or willing it to be part of her, becoming the same to her as scales were to a reptile.

She suddenly gasped, but this time the water didn't disappear. She did, however, fall back to the water, her breathing heavy. She slowly sat up, her arms shaking at the effort of pushing her body up. "I….. I did it," she whispered. Kina's blue eyes suddenly glowed with happiness and excitement. "Sasuke! Sasuke!" she yelled, jumping to her feet with more energy than she'd had in an hour. "Sasuke, I did it!" To Sasuke's surprise, she ran at him, throwing her arms around him. "I did it! I did it!"

Sasuke considered being a butthole and telling her to try on dry land now, but he was so shocked by the sudden hug that he didn't react. Then he blinked, stepping away. He felt heat in his face, which made no sense since he was now soaked with cold water.

When Kina saw this, her hands rose to her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. She was just so happy, though, and failed miserably. She let out a laugh, doubling over it was so hard.

Despite Sasuke's rage at being covered in water on his front half and his neck, he found himself smiling. "Yeah, you did it, Kina. Good job." Then he smirked. Now for payback. "So, let's see just how well you can use this new form." Almost as if someone had thrown a switch, the emotions drained out of him, replaced by calmness as he watched her. He actually was eager to fight her after what she could do with the rock form. What would this new form be like? "So, can you manipulate water?"

Kina calmed down to, but her eyes still gleam with joy. She shook her head. "No. I can only do that when in ultimate stage unless I'm in fire form." She paused, looking at Sasuke's raised eyebrow. "And you have absolutely no idea what I mean by that, huh?"

He shook his head, his hand going back to his sword. He'd let her explain, and then they'd start. He'd already had this part of the training planned in his head, going through it while she tried and failed to do the water form so many times.

"Well, ultimate is when you push past the limits of a form. This is usually done when you're in a real fight, such as a life or death match. When you unlock it once, though, you can use it whenever you want after that. It's so strong that you don't have to do hand signs of anything for jutsu. Not only that, but your chakra gets a huge boost and ones jutsus become stronger," Kina explained.

Sasuke sure was learning a lot about the Katachi clan's kekkei genkai.

"Too bad. That would have made this fight more interesting."

"Fight?" asked Kina, puzzled.

Sasuke nodded. "You're going to fight me while so you can adjust to combat in this form. After all, it's not like you get so much defense that you don't really have to fight," he explained. "Unless, that is, you still want that break." He already knew her answer before she shook her head.

"Nah, I'm fine. Plus I want to see just how far I can go with this jutsu when I'm tired," Kina said.

_She truly wants to get stronger,_ the Uchiha thought as he drew his sword. "You better not be mad at me then if I tell you I'm not holding back. I gave you the choice."

Kina smiled. "Don't worry about me. I was hoping you wouldn't." Before Sasuke could even rush forward, she was performing hand signs. "Water style!" she yelled. Water style? Oh, big surprise there. "Tidal wave jutsu!" She slammed her hands against the water, causing a wave to raise and move toward Sasuke.

He smirked, jumping up over the wave. "You'll have to do-" Before he could finish, water shot beside Kina and slammed into his face. It was nothing serious. Just enough to annoy him. When he landed, he glared at the laughing Kina. "Ha ha. Now you're completely soaked."

"How old are you?" Sasuke grumbled. He sighed, grabbing a kunai and throwing it at Kina. Her eyes hardened, all joking gone. She jumped out of the way, skidding to a stop. Sasuke charged then, lightning crackling around his sword. He slashed at Kina, slamming into the water. He shifted it at the last second so that the side of the blade hit her, doing nothing more than stinging from the smack of the metal.

She jumped away from him, he eyes narrowed. Kina weaved another set of hand signs. She must have previously been taught how to do water style ninjutsu, because she had another one to do. "Water style! Water dragon jutsu!" A dragon rose from the water, its blue eyes locked on Sasuke. With a mighty roar, it flew toward Sasuke.

In order to avoid it, he released the chakra at his feet. He was soaked anyway, so what was wrong with getting wet? He sunk into the water immediately, the dragon becoming part of the water it came from when it met the surface.

Sasuke smirked, kicking his legs to surface again when something crashed into his stomach. He looked down to see it was a fist, the girl owning the fist smiling as she breathed perfectly fine. Recalling what Sasuke had told him about the water jutsu, it was then he realized just how stupid a mistake he'd made.

He struggled to keep himself from gasping, which would only result in him taking in water. Instead he focused some lightning chakra to his hand and shoved Kina's shoulder. The shock that traveled through her momentarily stunning her, Sasuke kicked toward the surface again, this time getting there. He gasped for air, using his hands, chakra now in them, to help him bring his legs back above water.

Sasuke breathed in deep gulps of hair, trying to regain the oxygen he'd been deprived of under water. He glanced around, waiting for Kina to surface. Then again, she didn't have to if she didn't want to. So would she make him go through the mental strain of continually waiting for her to raise or would she surface?

Right as he wondered this, water shot from a about twenty feet in front of him. He got into a fighting stance as he watched the water, his eyes widening when he realized what was going on. It was a water dragon jutsu, but that wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was the fact that Kina was _inside_ the water dragon.

She remained in the air for a few seconds, smiling down at Sasuke from her position thirty feet in the air, before shooting down towards him. Then the water around her suddenly started shaking, and it was then Kina's eyes closed. Crap. Out of all the times for her to faint from exhaustion.

As she flew toward him, the water slowly falling back down to the lake, he sheathed his sword, knowing he was going to need both hands. He got to the right spot, bracing himself when she slammed into him. He was forced down, skidding back across the water. Like a rock, he skipped a few times, settling on the top of the water right before he hit land. He gasped for air, all of it being knocked out of him from the force of Kina colliding with his chest. He rested against the water, his chest heaving, Kina in his arms. Sasuke had to wait for a second for his body to recover from the impact of Kina. She wasn't heavy, but she'd fallen fast and had hit hard. He got to his feet, which was more difficult that it usually would have been because he could only use one hand at best. But that only made Kina more difficult to hold, so he only did it when necessary.

He walked over to the earth part of the training ground, walking over to the spot by the stone Kina had placed the rice balls, gently laying her down. He looked down at her, wondering if she would get some sleep since, according to the bags under her eyes, she hadn't the night before.

Sasuke walked over to a tree and sat down, leaning back against it. The sun was shining and was right on them, which would help in drying their clothes at least. It would have been a nice day if it wasn't for the wind that chilled him due to his clothes being soaked.

He glanced over at Kina, her face peaceful in sleep. It was actually kind of nice to be able to be around her and not hear her constantly talking. It was mean to think that, but it was the truth.

It was just her way of spreading happiness, though. If it was anyone else, he was sure he happy, constant chatter would be great. But it annoyed him almost all the time. Being the one to always end up babysitting her could also help fuel that annoyance.

Sometimes it wasn't so bad, though. Such as during their training. It had been more pleasant than he'd expected. They'd both got training out of it. He'd practiced with his sword and Kina could now use the water form if she was around water to use. If she hadn't fainted, who would have won their battle? Kina sure was strong, her determination making her stronger.

Speaking of strength…

_I guess to protect the people I care about._

Why had that been so important to Sasuke he'd stopped to ask? Was it because she was like him, losing the people she cared about to someone close to her? Had he been wondering if that meant they both wanted strength for the same reason?

Sasuke sighed, looking back at the blond girl. He watched her, her chest rising and falling as she slept. Despite himself, Sasuke felt a gentle smile form as he watched her.

****

The dark haired man walked through the candlelit corridor, his shadow shifting like crazy with the flicker of the flames. His white skin stood out in the dull corridor, his olive colored eyes, staring straight ahead as he approached some wooden doors that were pushed open, a white haired young man resting against them. A dum-dum-dum sound was coming from that room, echoing off the walls.

"Is he still training, Kabuto?" the man asked as he approached the other male.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto replied, adjusting the glasses that had slid down his nose. "The Hyuuga man was just about to be sent out."

The room in front of held many bodies, most of them dead or slowly dying from bleeding to death from wounds with kunai still in them. The only fully alive person was a male around Kabuto's age, maybe a year younger. He had blond hair, his bangs a dark brown color. His skin was somewhat pale, his eyes hidden behind a black sound headband. He wore a sandy brown vest with a darker brown strip going across his chest, a black T-shirt under it, two black gloves, light green pants with the part below the knee able to be unzipped and taken off, and brown boots instead if ninja shoes. Strapped to his waist was a short sword. There was a brown strap around his right shoulder, a drum hooked to it. It was from there that the beating was coming from, his hand beating against it.

As they watched, a door opened, someone being shoved out. It was a man with dark brown hair, pale eyes, and ragged black clothing. He had red marks on his arms from pulling against restraints that were no longer present. He took one look at the blond boy before his eyes narrowed, the veins becoming visible. He'd been promised freedom if he could beat the boy, Orochimaru knew. He'd been the one to make the promise.

Too bad it would never happen.

The man charged, his hands opened in the usual Hyuuga fighting style. He went to hit one of his chakra points, but before he could, the boy had a kunai in his right hand, slashing forward. The Hyuuga jumped back, but he didn't completely dodge. The kunai blade bit into his cheek just enough to draw blood.

The boy suddenly stopped beating against the drum, using his left hand to raise his headband to his forehead instead of his eyes. They were extremely pale blue due to his blindness. He brought the kunai to his mouth, his tongue darting out to lick the metal. The Hyuuga made a disgusted face. That face turned to one of bewilderment as the boy's eyes changed. The pale blue turned into a pale lavender. The boy smiled, the veins around his eyes becoming as prominent as the man's.

"Blood form," he said. The boy threw the kunai at the man, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He was just trying to get rid of the kunai. The man batted it aside with his hand, causing it to stick to the ground.

"What is going on? You are not a Hyuuga," the man pointed out.

"I'd be more worried about what I am." He took a step forward, and then he vanished. He appeared in front the man, in a position that caused fear to form in the man's eyes. The man, caught by surprise, didn't have time to react. "Eight trigrams, sixty-four palms!" The boy's hands moved at lightning speed, his fingertips hitting the chakra points and cutting of the flow of chakra.

The man screamed, being sent flying back by his last hit, which he used his palm for instead of his fingertips. "And that would be your death," the boy said, picking up the kunai that the man had knocked aside. The man, paralyzed with fear at the boy with unknown powers, could do nothing but stare as the boy threw the kunai, burying itself within his throat.

"So it seems like he can do dojutsu," Kabuto said, not moving when Orochimaru walked forward. He avoided the bodies, not letting them stop him from getting to the young male

"Good job, Taiko," Orochimaru said, watching as the blond pulled his headband back to its original place in front of his eyes. "I remember last time you tried that you fainted. It seems like you're making progress."

"We both know that's not why you're here, Orochimaru. You sent Kabuto to see that for you," Taiko said, he left hand returning to his drum. The beating sound started again, only this time it was lighter so it wouldn't block out Orochimaru's words. "So what do you want?"

The snake man chuckled. "No room for anything but the point with you, is there, young Taiko?"

"Just answer my question."

"Show more respect to Lord Orochimaru!" Kabuto called from where he was. It was something he seemed to say a dozen times to Taiko in one day.

"I just thought you'd want to know that Sasuke seems to have grown attached to our little Kina."

Orochimaru couldn't see Taiko's eyes, but he was sure that if he could, he'd see a spark of anger. "Why would that concern me?"

He smirked, something that the blind boy could still see despite his, well, blindness. That was what the drum was for. He could see through the cloth of the headband and the metal. It had been made just for that. And through that, he could see the area that sound waves didn't just go through. He wouldn't be able to see his eyes for more than just indentations in his head, and his mouth was something that was only visible because it rose off his face. "I just thought you'd care about the fact Sasuke may have a crush on your little sister."

Taiko turned, heading back to the door that Kabuto was by. "She's no longer part of my life. She chose her path."


	7. Help!

**So, how many of you never expected to see a new thing in this? *raises own hand* Yeah, I really didn't think I would. But I'm kinda doing this on a spur of the moment because this has been bugging me lately, and I hope it doesn't suddenly die out and make this pointless =_=. Anyway, please help me. This is why *gestures to below text***

* * *

><p>You know, one time Silverwolf pointed out one of the reasons I am having difficulty with Tainted Guardian is because I'm taking the Uchiha aspect from it. Then, I thought she was wrong. Now? I'm starting to really think she was right.<p>

Though it's not Sasaui being an Uchiha so much (though I am starting to think I miss that) as much as I'm just missing writing about Sasuke as well. Yeah, he's a total word-I-can't-say in the later parts (Shippuden), but I really enjoyed writing him when he was still a teen in the regular Naruto. I loved writing Never Too Late because it involved him, but something just felt off then. And it still does. Maybe the character centric part? Yet I loved that at the same time, which is why I've wanted to rewrite it.

But I'm still not sure what I want to do. I just know I want to write about Sasuke again, but I don't want to make it be Sasaui Uchiha again because I want to write a SasuOc story. I majorly blame that on Tink-chan, just because she keeps reviving it with her How to Adapt and Overcome/Reverse This Curse fanfic. Though I'm not angry - just lost on what to do.

So, what do you guys think? I thought about restarting (as in pick it back up) or rewriting NTL, mostly because I keep wondering if Sasuke would really fall for what I deemed a female Naruto. It makes me wonder if she's too nice and other things.

So, again, asking for help here. Just don't tell me to do what I want. I want some opinions, because I don't know what I want. That's why I'm asking. I'm conflicted and confused and worried I'll just start something and then stop, but I've been missing writing about Sasuke. As much as I hate him in Shippuden, he is one of my favorite character (not the favorite, but a favorite). Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.


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